Rome
CNN
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The salvage crew recovered the boom from a $40 million Bayesian luxury yacht that sank on the Sicily coast in August 2024, killing seven people, including British tech giant Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.
Connected to a 72-meter (236-foot) mast, the boom is one of the tallest on a yacht, and is the first known fragment lifted out of the water.
May 9th, 39-year-old Dutch expert diver Robcornelis Maria Huijben Uiben Italian coast guard officials said he was killed in an underwater explosion while trying to separate the boom from the ship. The boom recovery — the long pole controlling the sails — will become part of a forensic investigation into the death of divers, officials told CNN.
The 55.9-meter (184 feet) yacht still carries 18,000 liters of fuel, but fell into a sudden storm on August 19th, mooring near Porticello, Sicily, near Palermo.
Fifteen people survived, including nine crew members.
British investigators at the scene days after the accident released a “desktop” report last week, stating that the ship had been sunk due to structural problems on the vessel.
Italian investigators publicly rejected the findings and told local reporters that if they looked up the container from the water they could not determine a conclusion about the cause of the sinking. The ship lies on the right board on the seabed. This means that no images of that part of the ship have been taken to determine its condition.
Officials from Smit Salvage, part of the Salvage team led by TMC Marine, told CNN that the hatch appears to be open. According to a British report, one of the crew posted a video of the storm in the distance.
No one has been charged with criminal negligence in the accident, but Captain James Cutfield and two other crew members are currently investigating their role in passenger death.
The container is believed to contain a watertight safe that holds a highly encrypted hard drive by Lynch. Investigators told CNN that they could not verify the presence of the safe or contents until the ship was pulled out of the water.
The timetable for lifting yachts from the 50 metres deep seabed stated that masts and booms would remain on the seabed until the hull of the gorgeous yacht is lifted. Instead, the boom was first announced, helping to investigate the deaths of divers. It is unknown when the mast cut from the container is pulled from the water.
The yacht’s hull is scheduled to be grown between May 26th and May 28th. Once the water is empty, the wreckage is lifted by a crane to the Port of Termini Imereze, where it is quarantined and inspected by the airline. A full report is expected by the end of summer.
