Diver Searching for 6 Missing People on Sunken Yacht Talks ‘Difficult’ Nature of Getting Inside

Mar. 15, 2025

Italian emergency services continue the search for the six missing yacht passengers off Sicily’s coast.Photo:Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images

Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images

Rescue divers have spoken of the difficult circumstances they are facing in the search for six people who are still missing after aluxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.

Officials searched the bridge of the yacht but were unable to find any passengers located there and have turned their attention to finding a way into the yacht’s cabins, per theBBC.

“Access to the hull is difficult. If you manage to get inside, you understand there is a world of objects. So, getting inside and descending into the compartment below from the stairs that are narrow and going into all of the cabins is a really hard and difficult job,” fire department diver Marco Tilotta said per Reuters, according to theBBC.

“We are not stopping. We have resources, manpower and means. Our goal is to find all the people who are missing, so that is our job,” Tilotta.

A life boat docked in Porticello near Palermo, on August 20, 2024, a day after the British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian sank.ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images

ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images

PerReuters, Tilotta told reporters the yacht appears to be intact and was lying on its right side. According to the outlet, the boat is lying at a depth of 49 metres (160 feet), giving divers only 8-10 minutes to search the wreck before they have to resurface.

The yacht had been carrying 22 passengers, 15 of which were able to escape, according to the outlets. One person, reportedly the yacht’s cook, was found dead and his body was recovered from the scene.

Those missing include Morgan Stanley executiveJonathan Bloomerand his wife, Judy Bloomer, and attorney Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo, a senior civil protection officer told PEOPLE on Monday.

Local officials also told PEOPLE that the two other people missing are British tech entrepreneurMike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.

“It all happened in really little time,” he added.

The president of the Italian Meteorological Society Luca Mercalli told Reuters, per theBBC, that the boat had been hit at about 4 a.m. with what was described as a “brief but very violent meteorological event” that involved winds of over 93 mph. Civil protection officials said they believed this event was a waterspout, or rotating column of air that occurs over a body of water, perAssociated Press.

“All our hearts go out to those caught up in this terrible tragedy,” he added.

source: people.com