Italian prosecutor opens manslaughter probe in yacht sinking
World
Italian prosecutor opens manslaughter probe in yacht sinking
TERMINI IMERESE, Italy (Reuters) - An Italian prosecutor has opened a manslaughter investigation into the deaths of British tech magnate Mike Lynch and six other people who were killed when a luxury yacht sank in stormy weather off Sicily this week.
The head of the public prosecutor's office of Termini Imerese, Ambrogio Cartosio, said that while the yacht had been hit by a very sudden meteorological event, it was "plausible" that crimes of multiple manslaughter and causing a shipwreck through negligence had been committed.
So far the investigation was not aimed at any individual person, he told a news conference.
Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, was also among those who died when the family's 56-metre-long (184-foot) boat, the Bayesian, capsized during a fierce, pre-dawn storm on Monday off Porticello, near Palermo.
Fifteen people survived, including Lynch's wife, whose company owned the Bayesian, and the yacht's captain.
The disaster would be even more painful if the investigation showed it was caused "by behaviours that were not aligned to the responsibilities that everyone needs to take in shipping," Cartosio said.
The captain James Cutfield and the other survivors have been questioned this week by authorities. None of them have commented publicly on how the ship went down.
Raffaele Cammarano, another prosecutor speaking at the same news conference, said that when authorities questioned Cutfield he had been "extremely cooperative".
