British billionaire Mike Lynch one of five bodies recovered from sunken yacht disaster
One of the five bodies recovered from the sunken yacht off the coast of Sicily has reportedly been identified as British billionaire Mike Lynch.
The Bayesian boat carrying 22 passengers and crew sank at around 5.00am local time on Monday (19 August) after coming into contact with a tornado.
The superyacht was around half-a-mile off the coast of Porticello when it went down.
Lynch, his daughter Hannah, Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were named as missing.
By Thursday morning, five bodies had been recovered from the wreck, with one still missing. And the Italian Coastguard has now confirmed to the PA news agency that the sixth and final person yet to be found was a woman.
A friend of Lynch, Brent Hoberman, told Sky News they were 'all hoping for a miracle'.
"We knew it was unlikely but you still hold out hope," he said. "It's just so unbelievably tragic for him to go through what he went through over the last 12 years, defending his name and not really living a full life, to now for his death to be confirmed is obviously incredibly sad."
15 people onboard, including the tech tycoon's wife, Angela Bacares, were rescued after escaping onto a lifeboat. The body of chef Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian-Antiguan man working onboard, was recovered near the yacht.
Businessman Lynch who founded software company Autonomy in 1996 was cleared of conducting fraud on an $11 billion (£8.64 billion) sale to US firm Hewlett Packard.
Sicily civil protection director-general Salvo Cocina previously told The Telegraph: “On behalf of myself and my colleagues, I would like to express my deepest sympathy to the families of the victims and express our condolences to them at this difficult time."
This comes after police boats, divers, fire crews, remotely controlled underwater vehicles and cave divers have been involved in the search, the Italian Coastguard has said.
Vincenzo Zagarola, of the Italian Coastguard, previously said the missing tourists were feared dead.
Meanwhile, Bloomer's twin brother, Jeremy, told the BBC that his family is 'coping the best they can'.
He said: "It's a slow process and it will take time. So there might be air pockets, but we don't know.
"He was my older [brother] by half an hour. So it means a lot when you lose a twin brother. It's still wait and see, so fingers crossed.
"I'm just numb, just numb. That's it, you don't know what to think and you can't believe it's happened."
A team of four British inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) also arrived in Porticello to look at the site of the sinking.
The MAIB is looking into what happened because the yacht Bayesian was flying a British flag, it is understood.
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.
Topics: UK News, World News, Bayesian yacht
Anish Vij