CNN
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Security camera footage showing the moments before a tornado sinks a Luxury yacht On the beach Sicily It has emerged that rescue workers are facing difficult conditions in their ongoing search For six missing people.
The black-and-white footage appears to show a British-flagged boat known as the “Bayesian” that was swept away by a violent storm on Monday. Rain in the harbor shows the boat rocking violently before capsizing.
CNN was unable to independently verify the location or date of the video, but the ship’s profile in the footage matches Bayesian’s model.
The ship sank early Monday morning – killing at least one of the 22 people on board – after its mast, the world’s tallest, snapped in half during the storm. 15 people have been rescued.
Reuters reports that the body recovered from the ship has been identified as Ricardo Thomas, an Antiguan national who was a cook.
Among those missing are British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, Morgan Stanley International director Jonathan Blumer and Chris Movillo, a prominent American lawyer, Sicily’s Civil Protection said.
Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter was also named as missing. He is survived by his wife, Angela Barcares. Speaking to Italian daily La Repubblica from a wheelchair in a Sicilian hospital, Bacares said he woke up at 4am local time when the boat capsized.
She said she and her husband weren’t worried at first, but became concerned when the boat’s windows were broken.
Anchored about half a mile off Porticello harbor, the boat capsized and sank after a small waterfall rolled onto the Mediterranean island. Eyewitnesses described furious hurricanes and hurricane-force winds, which left a mountain of debris near the ship.
A witness, the owner of the villa where Bayesian had spotted the anchorage, said after the news of the sinking boat came out, he re-watched his CCTV footage where the boat could be seen sinking.
“In just 60 seconds, you can see the ship disappear,” he told Italian outlet ANSA. “You can clearly see what’s going on. Nothing can be done about the ship. It’s gone in a very short time.”
Since the ship sank on Monday, emergency workers have been trying to go deeper into the wreckage, with dwindling hopes of finding survivors.
On Tuesday, divers were able to access the interior of the wreck, including some rooms under the boat’s control bridge. But the brigade said operations were “complicated” by the many obstructions and narrow passageways inside the ship, adding that Wednesday’s operation would try to open some of those passages.
Emergency crews launched a search for the missing on Wednesday and have begun inspecting the ship’s restrooms, ANSA reported. No more bodies were recovered.
Complicating rescue efforts is the fact that divers can spend a short time at the wreckage, thought to be about 50 meters (roughly 150 feet) underwater. Italy’s fire brigade has warned that divers have up to 12 minutes to reach the site.
Three days after the crash, investigators are still baffled as to how the ship sank so quickly. Matthew Shank, president of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, said Tuesday that such incidents are extremely rare.
“When you look at extreme weather, if it’s just a drop of water and it appears, I would classify it as a black swan event,” he said, referring to a rare, unpredictable event. “Even outside the maritime industry, all industries struggle with black swan events,” he added.
Although Sicily isn’t “notorious” for hurricanes or waterspouts, “there’s a risk” they could happen — just not every day, Shank said.
“I think it’s important to look at shipbuilding, the stability of the ship, what’s coming out that suggests possible changes,” he said, adding, “The shipbuilding regulations are all designed with safety in mind.”
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said it would send a team of four inspectors to Palermo to conduct a preliminary assessment of the scene.
