CCTV footage has shown the moment a storm off the coast of Sicily engulfed the Bayesian luxury yacht carrying 22 people.
The superyacht was moored around half-a-mile off the coast of Porticello when it sank at around 5am local time on Monday as the area was hit by a storm.
The tall mast of the craft can be seen in the black-and-white footage, as rain appears to be lashing down in the foreground.
Italian officials have said they fear British technology tycoon Mike Lynch and five others may have been trapped inside the boat. An expert has suggested they could be relying on air pockets to survive.
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Vincenzo Zagarola of the Italian Coastguard said this was the working theory of officials on Sicily because it is believed the boat sank quickly and search and rescue efforts by sea and air have so far delivered no results.
He said: “We think they are still inside the boat, that is our very hard idea.
“Our search and rescue activity by sea and air has gone on for around 36 hours.
“Of course, we do not exclude that they are not inside the boat, but we know the boat sank quickly. We suppose that the six people missing may not have had time to get out of the boat.”
Asked about the likelihood of them being alive, he replied: “Never say never, but reasonably the answer should be not.”
The CCTV footage taken from a villa only 200-metres away shows the £14million yacht slowly disappearing off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, as it is engulfed by a tornado of heavy rain. Lights from the yacht can also be seen in the distance.
One witness described how he went to check his cameras after hearing the news regarding the sunken yacht, according to Italian newspaper Giornale Di Sicilia.
The owner of the villa said: “In just sixty seconds, you can see the ship disappear. Of about twenty cameras installed in the house, only one was not disturbed by the wind and rain. You can clearly see what is happening. There was nothing that could be done for the boat. It disappeared in a very short time.”
Italy’s fire brigade Vigili del Fuoco said it is developing a plan to enter the wreckage of Bayesian, which is resting on the seabed off the coast at a depth of 50 metres.
It described the operation as “complex”, with divers limited to 12-minute underwater shifts.
The missing tourists are: Mr Lynch; his daughter, Hannah Lynch; Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.
Fifteen of the 22 passengers and crew onboard – including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares – were rescued after escaping onto a lifeboat.
On Tuesday, an inflated orange lifeboat was docked at the harbour near where search crews are being dispatched.
One body, belonging to the ship’s chef Recaldo Thomas, was recovered at the scene of the sinking on Monday.
Mr Lynch, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of conducting a massive fraud relating to an 11 billion US dollar (£8.64 billion) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.
The boat trip was a celebration of his acquittal.
