Recovery of Mike Lynch’s sunken £14m superyacht Bayesian halted after diver, 39, dies just days into salvage operation
THE recovery of Mike Lynch’s superyacht has been halted after a specialist diver died on the operation.
Brit tech tycoon Lynch drowned along with his daughter and five others died when the Bayesian sank in a storm off the Sicilian coast last August.
And now the boat has claimed another life – a 39-year-old specialist diver from the Netherlands working to haul the wreckage off the seabed.
Robcornelis Maria Huijben Uiben was pronounced dead on Friday afternoon – believed to have been working for Dutch firm SMIT Salvage.
The diver, who is thought to be a Dutch national, reportedly died when working 160ft below the ocean alongside other recovery workers to cut the boom of the yacht.
After an unsuccessful attempt trying to cut the section, the divers are believed to have used a blow torch.
Local media speculated that the man was hit by part of the cut boom as it came off whilst he was underwater.
David Wilson, spokesman for the British-based TMC Marine, said: “We are saddened to confirm the tragic death of a specialist diver while doing underwater work earlier today.”
He added that authorities had opened an investigation and all parties were fully cooperating.
The local prosecutor’s office has sealed off the area around the port where the diver died.
Sea salvage experts began work in early May to refloat the ship from the seabed off the Sicilian port of Porticello.
They brought in one of the most powerful marine cranes in Europe from Rotterdam.
The plan was to cut up the £14million superyacht’s 246ft aluminium mast – the second tallest in the world – to allow the hull to be brought to the surface.
It was initially thought the operation would take between 20 and 25 days – but its’s now unclear when the tricky recovery could be resumed.
Dutch-based companies HEBO, a maritime services provider from Rotterdam, and SMIT Salvage led the operation, with support from Italian specialists.
The 183ft-long Bayesian sank during a powerful storm.
Experts have been stumped as to how the supposedly-unsinkable ship went down.
Prosecutors are investigating the captain and two crew members for possible responsibility in the sinking.
As well as Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy, attorney Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda, and the ship’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, died in the shipwreck.
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