Everything We Know About Tech Tycoon Mike Lynch's Superyacht Disaster

British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch's private superyacht, Bayesian, was sunk off the coast of Sicily on August 19 due to damage caused by an unusually violent storm. Rescue efforts began shortly after and 15 of the 22 people who were onboard at the time of the storm were rescued. Early reports said that one body had been recovered, but that six people were still missing — and that as of late Tuesday, rescuers were still struggling to recover bodies from the sunken yacht due to many barriers blocking access.

On Wednesday, two days after the tragic event, rescuers were able to recover the bodies of four of the individuals who had died during the storm, two of whom were Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, according to AP. At the time of writing, the body of a fifth missing person had been located but not yet recovered, and the sixth person is still missing. While many questions remain unanswered, information has trickled in over the past few days, shedding some light on what has taken place.

Mike Lynch was a co-founder of the Autonomy Corporation, the founder of Invoke Capital, and the co-founder of cybersecurity company Darktrace. His presence in the tech industry was so widespread that many referred to him as "Britain's Bill Gates." One of his most infamous business dealings involved Hewlett-Packard's acquisition of Autonomy Corporation in October 2011. Only a few months after the deal took place, HP discovered that Autonomy had been claiming hardware sales as software revenue, allegedly making it seem as though it was making more money than it actually was. 

This forced HP to devalue the company it had just acquired by $8.8 billion and led to a string of lawsuits. HP replaced Lynch as Autonomy's CEO in May 2012, and only a few months later, multiple government agencies in the U.S. and U.K. began their own investigations into the matter. Several years later in November 2019, Lynch faced up to 25 years in prison in the U.S. — he was extradited from the U.K. in May 2023, kicking off a legal case that was resolved only weeks ago.

In early June 2024, Lynch was cleared of all fraud charges in the U.S. related to the HP-Autonomy acquisition, ending 13 years of litigation. "I am elated with today's verdict and grateful to the jury for their attention to the facts over the last 10 weeks," Lynch said to The Guardian shortly after the verdict. It seems Lynch may have been celebrating the legal victory during the trip on the Bayesian.

The $18 million Bayesian was a large vessel, so you'd think it wouldn't be particularly easy to sink — and you would be right. The storm that sank the superyacht happened at night, and so there weren't many people observing it at the time, but the brunt of it seemed to be largely centralized in the area immediately surrounding the ship. The Independent reports that CCTV footage from a nearby dock shows the moment the yacht went down — though the footage is murky, due to the weather, you can clearly see the lights on the ship rapidly go under.

Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian meteorological society, told Reuters that the fatal damage could have been caused a type of tornado on water known as a water spout, but it also may have been due to a downburst. Mercalli also claimed that the rising frequency of these kinds of storms can likely be attributed to climate change. Matthew Schanck, chair of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, reportedly referred to this kind of weather as a "Black Swan event."

There were 12 passengers and 10 crew members onboard the Bayesian when it sank; 15 people on the ship's manifest have been recovered at the time of writing including Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares. This left seven of the ship's passengers unaccounted for: Mike Lynch, Hannah Lynch, Morgan Stanley International Director Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, attorney Chris Morvillo and his Neda Morvillo, and the ship's chef, Recaldo Thomas.

Thomas' body was recovered on Monday, and another five bodies were located on Tuesday, four of which were recovered from the wreckage and a fifth that would be recovered on Thursday. The bodies of Lynch and his daughter were reportedly found inside the hull of the ship. Not all of the bodies that were recovered have been identified yet, but this accounts for six of the seven missing passengers. At the time of writing, the search for the final passenger is still ongoing, and it seems unlikely at this point that they may have survived.

Part of the reason the recovery efforts have taken so long is the 150-foot depth of the wreckage and the hazardous nature of the ship itself. "We are trying to advance in tight spaces, but any single thing slows us down," Fire Rescue service spokesman Luca Cari said to AP News. "An electric panel could set us back for five hours. These aren't normal conditions. We're at the limit of possibility."