5 bodies discovered in sunken superyacht off Sicily as search continues

Five bodies have been found from a superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily, according to the Italian Coast Guard. One last passenger is missing.

Two bodies were pulled ashore on Wednesday morning, and two more were discovered later in the day, according to the Italian coast guard. The province of Sicily's director general, Salvatore Cocina, claims that a fifth body has been found but has not yet been brought to the surface.

The Bayesian is currently lying on the seabed at a 90-degree angle at a depth of 164 feet, making rescue operations challenging.  Only ten minutes are allowed for divers to stay at the dive site before they must surface to prevent decompression sickness, sometimes known as "the bends."

Notable American lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo, director Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy Bloomer of Morgan Stanley International, and British software mogul Mike Lynch and his eighteen-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch are among the missing individuals. Not long after the boat capsized, the cook of the Bayesian superyacht was found dead.

Lynch's wife, who was the owner of the yacht, was among the fifteen passengers and crew members that managed to escape the catastrophe.

The specialists are still baffled as to how the ship sank so quickly, three days after the accident. Such occurrences are exceedingly uncommon, according to Matthew Schanck, chair of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council.

“Looking at the extreme weather, if it was a water spout, which it appears to be, it’s what I would class as a black swan event,” he said, referring to a rare, unpredictable occurence. “Even outside of the maritime industry, all industries struggle with the black swan events,” he added.

Concerns have grown about how the state-of-the-art battleship could have sunk in a matter of minutes when other surrounding warships escaped completely unscathed.  These kinds of vessels have a number of safety features, such as waterproof sub-compartments that keep the vessel from sinking rapidly even when it is full of water.

Four inspectors will fly to Palermo to conduct a preliminary inspection of the site, according to a statement made by the UK's Marine Accident inspection Branch (MAIB).