Six people missing, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, and one dead after tornado sinks luxury yacht off Sicily

By Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN

(CNN) — Rescuers were on Monday searching for six people – including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch – who went missing after a luxury yacht was hit by a tornado and sank off the coast of Sicily, killing one of the 22 people on board.

The vessel was hit by the tornado at around 5 a.m. Monday, according to a spokesperson for Italy’s Coast Guard. The yacht was anchored about a half a mile from the port of Porticello on the Mediterranean island.

Four Britons and two Americans are among those missing, the spokesperson said.

A source told CNN that Lynch, the founder of software giant Autonomy, was a passenger on the yacht. The source spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Fifteen people were rescued, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, and one child was airlifted to the children’s hospital in Palermo. Eight people were hospitalized in total, according to the mayor’s office. One body was found on the hull of the yacht, the Coast Guard said.

A small waterspout – one of several types of tornadoes – developed over the area Monday morning, according to a report from the European Severe Weather Database. Other strong storms across Sicily brought torrential rainfall late Sunday, dumping more than 4 inches (100 mm) of rain in less than four hours in Brolo, east of Palermo.

The weather forecast had warned of potential strong winds, with storms across the entire southern region of Italy Sunday, the Coast Guard spokesperson added.

One survivor, Charlotte, 35, described how she battled to hold onto her one-year-old daughter, Sofia, reported Italian news agency ANSA, as a barrage of waves sank the yacht.

“In two seconds I lost the baby in the sea, then I immediately hugged her again amidst the fury of the waves. I held her tightly, close to me, while the sea was stormy,” she told journalists. “Many were screaming.”

The captain is among the survivors, the spokesperson for Italy’s Coast Guard said.

The 56-meter yacht called the “Bayesian,” which flies under a British flag, had mostly British passengers and crew, in addition to two Anglo-French, one Irish and one Sri Lankan, the spokesperson told CNN. The New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade told CNN two of its citizens were involved in the incident, but were not among those still missing. The nationality of the dead person has not been disclosed.

The Italian fire brigade said its divers had reached the yacht’s hull 49 meters (160 feet) below sea level, according to a press statement. The brigade also dispatched helicopters to bolster the search operation.

The captain of a nearby boat said he turned on his engine to avoid crashing into the Bayesian, Reuters reported, as fierce gales swept the area.

“This morning we got this strong gust and we had to start the engine to keep the ship in an angled position,” he told reporters on Monday. “After the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone.”

The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) is deploying a team of four inspectors to Palermo to conduct a preliminary assessment of the yacht, a source familiar with the operations told CNN. The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, did not say when the team is expected to arrive in Sicily.

British tycoon among those missing

Lynch, the British entrepreneur missing from the yacht, had been plagued by legal woes since 2011, when he sold his company to tech firm Hewlett-Packard (HP) for $11 billion.

In June, he was acquitted of fraud by a jury in San Francisco, after prosecutors accused him of trying to inflate Autonomy’s revenue in the latest chapter of the legal saga.

He turned ground-breaking research at Cambridge University into the foundation of Autonomy, which became Britain’s biggest software company and a member of the blue-chip FTSE 100 index.

Lynch was lauded by academics and scientists and asked to advise the British government on technology and innovation.

Ownership records held by maritime information service Equasis show that the yacht is owned by the Isle of Man-registered Revtom Limited company. Revtom Limited’s latest annual return from April lists Bacares as its owner.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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CNN’s Catherine Nicholls, Benjamin Brown and Eve Brennan contributed reporting.