Families cling to hope as remote-controlled vehicles join search for yacht survivors

REMOTE-CONTROLLED underwater vehicles were today joining specialist divers in a third day searching for the British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and others missing from the Bayesian superyacht as loved ones clung to the slimmest hopes of life.

- Martin Bentham

The underwater vehicles were being used to assist divers seeking to clear a route past scattered furniture and other debris that has so far blocked access to cabins of the vessel lying 50 metres below the sea off the coast of Sicily.

Only one body had so far been recovered near the yacht, believed to be that of Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian-Antiguan chef who was working onboard. But the absence of others left faint hopes still lingering of a miracle survival. Mr Lynch and the five others were still unaccounted for since a “black swan” waterspout engulfed and sank the entrepreneur’s luxury yacht in the early hours of Monday.

The others missing are Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah, the chairman of Morgan Stanley International bank Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, and the Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his jewellery designer wife Neda.

Search crews today arrived at 6.30am local time, with a boat carrying divers seen leaving the port of Porticello at around 10.30am. Fire crews said they were accessing the yacht through natural entrances.