Yacht couples 'suffocated in Bayesian cabin air bubble'

Four of the victims of last month’s Bayesian yacht disaster died after oxygen ran out in an air bubble on the sunken vessel, it has been reported.

- TOM WATLING BARNEY DAVIS

Autopsies over the past few days on four of those who died have revealed an absence of water in their lungs, suggesting they suffocated as the air became saturated with carbon dioxide, Italian publication La Repubblica said.

The outlet reported post-mortem examinations showed four people died from “atypical drowning”, with “no water in their lungs, trachea and stomach”. There were no signs of external injuries.

The results appear to back up investigators’ opinions that the victims sought out air pockets inside the yacht before they died.

The incident on 19 August, which claimed the lives of seven people including British tech magnate Mike Lynch and his 18year-old daughter Hannah, unfolded last month after a violent storm hit the Bayesian off the coast of Sicily.

The yacht sank quickly, trapping the victims below deck as it settled on its right side. Divers who retrieved the victims’ bodies on board found five of them, including Mr Lynch, in one cabin on the left side of the yacht. Hannah Lynch’s body was the last to be found, in a separate cabin.

The body of the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, was also recovered floating near the wreckage, which lies 50 metres below the surface.

Investigators believe the victims sought out remaining air pockets as the vessel moved sharply to the right while sinking.

However, it is unlikely to have lasted long as it would have been “small and quickly filled with rising levels of toxic carbon dioxide”.

The findings of the autopsies, detailed in La Repubblica on Wednesday, appeared to support this theory.