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    Authorities Open Manslaughter Investigation in Italy Yacht Sinking

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    A prosecutor involved in the inquiry into the sinking said it was “plausible” that crimes were committed during the accident.Italian authorities said on Saturday that they had opened a manslaughter investigation into the sinking of the Bayesian luxury yacht, but that they had not yet zeroed in on any potential suspects.The sleek, $40 million sailing boat went down fast in a storm off Sicily’s coast on Monday morning, killing Michael Lynch, a British tech billionaire; his teenage daughter, Hannah; four of his friends; and one member of the crew. The captain escaped on a lifeboat with 14 others.On Saturday, Ambrogio Cartosio, the prosecutor in charge of the case, said at a news conference that it was “plausible” crimes were committed during the accident.“There could be responsibilities of the captain only,” he said. “There could be responsibilities of the whole crew. There could be responsibilities of the boat makers. Or there could be responsibilities of those who were in charge of surveilling the boat.”Here is what the authorities said on Saturday:It will be difficult to determine the cause of the sinking until the yacht is brought to the surface and inspected, which could take weeks.Five bodies were found in the same cabin.The yacht sank at an angle, with the stern — where the heavy engine is situated — having gone down first.The captain and the crew, who have been holed up in a Sicilian hotel with other survivors, are allowed to leave Italy. But prosecutors said that they still want to ask them more questions.The authorities did not perform alcohol or drug tests on the captain or the crew.The authorities would not comment on whether hatches on the deck had been left open, which would have allowed water to pour in during the yacht’s sinking.In addition to possible manslaughter charges, the authorities are also investigating the possibility of a negligently caused shipwreck, a crime that carries up to several years in prison upon conviction.Investigators said they were focusing on why the 184-foot-long Bayesian, which was built in 2008, went down so quickly, especially when other yachts nearby weathered the storm.Executives at the company that built the boat have said there is nothing faulty with the design of the yacht and have tried to shift the blame to the crew.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Divers Find 2 Bodies From Yacht That Sank Off Sicily

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      The discovery came after the vessel sank this week in what some witnesses described as a waterspout, or a small tornado, during a violent downpour. No names were immediately released.After three days of searching the hull of a sailing yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily, divers on Wednesday recovered the bodies of two passengers who were believed to have been trapped inside their cabins when the vessel went down, officials in Sicily said.The yacht, the Bayesian, with 12 crew members and 10 passengers, was caught in what some witnesses described as a waterspout, essentially a small tornado on water, during a sudden and violent downpour in the pre-dawn hours of Monday.The recovery of the two bodies was confirmed by Salvatore Cocina, head of Sicily’s civil protection agency. What looked like a green body bag was lifted from a vessel in Porticello, Sicily, on Wednesday afternoon and loaded onto a waiting ambulance as a large group of rescuers stood by in their uniforms.On the dock, a crowd of reporters and bystanders watched on in near complete silence, as a church bell tolled in the background.Although 15 people made it to safety and the yacht’s cook was confirmed dead, the fate of the remaining six people, including a British tech entrepreneur, Mike Lynch, had been formally unresolved until the update on Wednesday.In addition to Mr. Lynch, the remaining people who had been identified as missing by the authorities were his daughter Hannah; Jonathan Bloomer, the chairman of Morgan Stanley International; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Christopher J. Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.Mike Lynch in 2011. Pool photo by Ben GurrThey were part of a group of people celebrating a legal victory for Mr. Lynch, who was acquitted in June of fraud charges tied to the sale of his company, Autonomy, to the tech giant Hewlett-Packard.The body of the yacht’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, who held Canadian and Antiguan citizenship, was recovered earlier from the water, the Sicilian civil protection agency said.Deep sea divers with the Vigili del Fuoco, Italy’s firefighting corps, were able to reach the bodies after dealing with what Luca Cari, their spokesman, described as “very difficult” conditions.The yacht had settled on its side, about 165 feet below the surface, and divers could only remain underwater for a limited amount of time. To complicate matters, they had to navigate through broken furnishings and electrical wiring that blocked the tight spaces inside the hull. More