Bayesian's interior finally revealed as luxury superyacht turned into chaotic mess after being raised from seabed

Scottish Sun

14 hours ago

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HAUNTING pictures of the Bayesian superyacht's wrecked interior have been revealed - after it sank off the coast off Sicily last summer.
Tech tycoon Mike Lynch, 59, and his daughter Hannah, 18, were among those on board the doomed vessel when it plummeted to the bottom of the Mediterranean.
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Haunting pictures show the aftermath of the Bayesian's sinking
Credit: TG/RAINEWS
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The Bayesian's interior pictured before it sank 10 months ago
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Chilling pictures showed the extent of the ship's damage nearly a year after it sank
Credit: TG/RAINEWS
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Tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah died in the horror accident
Credit: Darren Fletcher
It comes after the £14million luxury vessel was lifted from the depths of the sea as part of a gruelling recovery operation which began in May.
The new photographs reveal the watery grave of the tragic entrepreneur's yacht.
A ruined reception area holds soaked furniture scattered across one side of the dilapidated room.
Waterlogged armchairs and pillows thrown all over the eerie compartment sit next to ghastly tables which have been soaked under water for the last 10 months.
The once sumptuous interior now rotten with grime is a harrowing reminder of the tragic day on August 19 2024 when the ship sank in just 16 minutes after being hit by a violent downburst.
The freak accident also took the lives of banker Jonathan Bloomer, 70, and his wife Judy Bloomer, 71, as well as US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo, and Canadian-Antiguan chef Recaldo Thomas.
A further 15 people were rescued following the ship's horror plummet.
Last week, chilling pictures showed the Bayesian resurface for the first time in nearly a year as bystanders watched one of Europe's biggest cranes lift the yacht up from 150ft below the water.
The Bayesian was then transported about 15 miles along the coast to the port of Termini Imerese.
The multimillion-pound vessel was pulled onto a specially made steel cradle at the port.
I found doomed Bayesian underwater..what I saw still haunts me
It is currently being examined by investigators, who are trying to work out what caused it to sink so rapidly.
Italian builders insisted the ship was virtually unsinkable and suggested the crew may have been at fault.
Speculation circulated that someone could have left a hatch open during the storm.
But after it was hauled up last week, investigators found every hatch was shut tight.
It comes after a bombshell report revealed the astonishing "vulnerability" of Lynch's "unsinkable" Bayesian superyacht which led to its tragic demise.
After examining the sinking of the 180ft Bayesian off Sicily last year, investigators now say the ship was knocked over by 'extreme wind' and could not recover.
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Damaged equipment on board the Bayesian
Credit: TG/RAINEWS
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Superyacht Bayesian being lifted up from the bottom of the sea
Credit: AFP
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The top of the passenger area of the superyacht Bayesian being lifted
Credit: Reuters
And they confirmed the vessel's critical weakness was that the ship was vulnerable to wind.
An interim report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch said the yacht had a 'vulnerability' to lighter winds but the owner and crew would not have known.
It added it had 'limited verified evidence' as the criminal probe in Italy had restricted its access.
Italian prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into the yacht's sudden sinking.
They are probing the ship's skipper New Zealand national James Cutfield, Brit chief engineer Tim Parker Eaton, and deckhand Matthew Griffiths, for potential manslaughter and causing a shipwreck.
Inside the Bayesian's final 16 minutes
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Data recovered from the Bayesian's Automatic Identification System (AIS) breaks down exactly how it sank in a painful minute-by-minute timeline.
At 3.50am on Monday August 19 the Bayesian began to shake "dangerously" during a fierce storm, Italian outlet Corriere revealed.
Just minutes later at 3.59am the boat's anchor gave way, with a source saying the data showed there was "no anchor left to hold".
After the ferocious weather ripped away the boat's mooring it was dragged some 358 metres through the water.
By 4am it had began to take on water and was plunged into a blackout, indicating that the waves had reached its generator or even engine room.
At 4.05am the Bayesian fully disappeared underneath the waves.
An emergency GPS signal was finally emitted at 4.06am to the coastguard station in Bari, a city nearby, alerting them that the vessel had sunk.
Early reports suggested the disaster struck around 5am local time off the coast of Porticello Harbour in Palermo, Sicily.
The new data pulled from the boat's AIS appears to suggest it happened an hour earlier at around 4am.
Some 15 of the 22 onboard were rescued, 11 of them scrambling onto an inflatable life raft that sprung up on the deck.
A smaller nearby boat - named Sir Robert Baden Powell - then helped take those people to shore.
The huge £20million recovery undertaking was plagued by delays and more tragedy - after a diver working on the operation died last month.
Robcornelis Maria Huijben Uiben, 39, died when working 160ft below the ocean alongside other workers - just days after recovery operations began.
This prompted some locals to believe that the sunken ship is "cursed".
Floating cranes, remote-controlled robots, and specialist divers amongst other marine experts were brought in to recover the vessel.
Billionaire Dr Lynch was celebrating being cleared of a massive fraud over the sale of Autonomy to computer giant Hewlett-Packard in 2011 when the Bayesian went down.
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Lynch, 59, died as the yacht sank
Credit: Reuters
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Tycoon Mike Lynch's superyacht sank because it was vulnerable to wind, a report claims
Credit: EPA
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