‘Indescribable’ crew errors led to disaster on Mike Lynch’s Bayesian, yacht maker says
- Had correct procedures been followed, all passengers would have gone back to sleep after one hour, the CEO of The Italian Sea Group says
A series of “indescribable, unreasonable errors” by the crew led to the shipwreck in which British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and six others died earlier this week, the yacht manufacturer’s CEO said in an interview on Thursday.
The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long (184-foot) superyacht with 22 people aboard – 12 passengers and 10 crew – capsized and sank on Monday within minutes of being hit by a predawn storm while anchored off the coast of northern Sicily.
“The boat suffered a series of indescribable, unreasonable errors, the impossible happened on that boat … but it went down because it took on water. From where, the investigators will tell,” Giovanni Costantino said.
Costantino helms The Italian Sea Group, which includes Perini Navi, the Italian high-end yacht maker that built the Bayesian in 2008. The vessel has been refitted twice, last in 2020, but not by Perini.
The CEO ruled out any design or construction errors, which he called unlikely after 16 years of trouble-free navigation, including in more severe weather than on Monday.
He blamed the Bayesian’s crew for the “incredible mistake” of not being prepared for the storm, which had been announced in shipping forecasts. “This is the mistake that cries out for vengeance,” he said.
