There would have been signs of the waterspout said to have hit the superyacht Bayesian before it sank off the coast of Sicily, a former Royal Navy weather expert has said.
Jim Dale, who is now a senior meteorological consultant at British Weather Services but spent years at sea with the navy as a meteorological observer, said there would have been some indications of the adverse weather conditions which sank the vessel.
He told Express.co.uk that as a superyacht the boat would have had “sophisticated” equipment such as radar and feeds bringing weather updates to both the captain and crew in the hours and minutes before the storm hit.
Mr Dale added: “I’m sure this event happened very quickly, but the question is, given the fact they were out there and there’s a potentially severe situation, if you’re on the bridge looking out and having regard to radar there should be clues around you.
“These things can happen quickly, but radar would show precipitation coming out of cumulonimbus clouds so you can estimate things going on around you. Was there anyone on the bridge at the time?
“It would have felt quite serene (before the spout hit). Was there anyone on the bridge having regard to local weather?”
The weather expert said there was low pressure over north and south Italy around the time of the sinking, with an “inclement” and “unstable” atmosphere, driven to some extent by the raised temperature of the Mediterranean Sea.
He said there was somewhere in the region of 19 waterspouts recorded. Waterspouts are swirling columns of air and water mist which act like tornados. Spouts can reach more than 100mph and bring frequent lightning and hail.
Fair-weather waterspouts usually form along the flat underside of a line of cumulonimbus clouds.
Mr Dale said the meteorological indications of unsettled weather may not have been near the yacht itself but there would have been signs elsewhere in the region.
The body of technology tycoon Mike Lynch was recovered after the tragic sinking. At the time of writing, his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, reportedly remains missing. The Italian Coastguard confirmed that the sixth and final person yet to be found is a woman.
Mr Lynch, his daughter, Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, and his wife Neda Morvillo were lost when the Bayesian sank at around 5am on Monday.
The body of a man was recovered near the yacht. It is believed to be that of chef Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian-Antiguan man working onboard.
A fifth person’s body was recovered from the yacht’s wreckage and returned in a blue body bag to the port of Porticello on Thursday morning. Of the 22 passengers and crew on board, 15 – including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares – were rescued after escaping onto a lifeboat.
Mr Dale said that while further details have yet to emerge, the fact bodies have been recovered from below deck suggests it all may have happened very quickly, with no time for those who died to get up on deck. He said the location of the recoveries raises the question as to when the alarm was raised on board.
He added: “It’s a time thing and a warning thing. If you’re observing the weather the first thing you’ll notice in this situation is the sea becomes rough. You start to hear the wind making a noise even from a distance. All this becomes apparent.
“It’s not a catastrophic situation, but a deteriorating situation. That’s the difference between survival and non-survival.”
The expert said anchoring in the harbour about half a mile from Porticello and not in port would have made the vessel more prone and exposed to bad weather conditions, adding: “Straightaway you heighten the risk of severe weather coming along and impacting you.”
He also pointed to the fact that those on board would have been unlikely to have seen the waterspout coming because it was dark at the time. Mr Dale said: “You don’t see much weather phenomena when it’s dark.”
So far inspections of the yacht’s internal hull have taken place, with a team of four British inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) also having arrived in Porticello to look at the site of the sinking.
The MAIB is looking into what happened because the yacht was flying a British flag. The Italian Coastguard said the MAIB is not involved in the search for the missing people and that it has not been requested to assist.
The Bayesian’s captain, James Cutfield, has reportedly been quizzed by authorities, as investigators began speaking to all crew members.
Mr Cutfield’s brother Mark told New Zealand media his sibling was a “very good sailor” with eight years of experience working abroad on luxury yachts.
Investigations into the exact circumstances of the tragedy remain ongoing.