The investigation into the sinking of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank last Monday off Sicily’s coast, is widening to include the crew.
The investigation into the sinking of the superyacht Bayesian, which sank last Monday off the town of Porticello, just outside Sicily’s capital Palermo, is widening to include the crew.
So far James Cutfield, the 51-year-old New Zealand national who was captain of the Bayesian, has been of primary interest to the investigation which is determining whether the crimes of “culpable shipwreck” and “manslaughter” may have been committed.
The captain was among 15 survivors after the yacht sank at night in a storm on 19 August. The British tech magnate Mike Lynch was killed, as well as his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and five others. Angela Barcares, Lynch’s widow and owner of the company in whose name the yacht is registered, also survived.
The other members of the crew have now also been heard by magistrates and they may also be placed under investigation, alongside their captain.
Under Italian laws, being under investigation doesn’t imply any guilt and doesn’t necessarily lead to criminal charges.
So far, Italian prosecutors have only named James Cutfield as a suspect in its manslaughter investigation into the deaths of the seven people who perished.
On Sunday, magistrates questioned all the crew members with the support of an interpreter. Hundreds of pages of minutes in English will have to be translated into Italian and should arrive on the prosecutors’ tables within thirty days.
James Cutfield will be heard for the third time by investigators on Tuesday afternoon at a hotel in Palermo where the crew members have been staying since the tragedy. Most of them – the bosun, the two sailors, the chief engineer, and the three young hostesses – were due to leave Sicily on Tuesday.
The captain and first officer of the Bayesian, however, will have to wait a few more days before they can leave, as they may be questioned again.
Cutfield is being defended by two well-known lawyers: Giovanni Rizzuti from Palermo and Aldo Mordiglia from Genoa. “James Cutfield … is determined to defend himself against the charges brought against him by the prosecution,” said Rizzuti. According to legal experts, the strategy that the captain’s lawyers are likely to adopt is to not let him answer the prosecutors’ questions, as no one is yet aware of the results of the investigations made so far by the prosecution.
Cutfield, who has a career as an experienced skipper with a particular passion for the Mediterranean, expects to return to Majorca with his wife soon.
Like the Titanic, Bayesian was hailed as ‘unsinkable’ by its builders
The testimonies of Cutfield and his deputy, Koopmans, are crucial to determining what happened and whether mistakes were made by the crew, who were allegedly taken by surprise by the storm.
Many questions remain: why did the sailing ship remain anchored just offshore when bad weather was forecast? Were the hatches open and did they take on water? Why were the passengers not warned in time?
And also, how is it possible that a 56-metre-long sailboat with a 75-metre-high mast could sink so quickly?
Among the first hypotheses of Civil Defence officials was that the sailing boat was hit by a so-called waterspout or a ‘downburst’, a localised and powerful wind that descends from a thunderstorm and spreads quickly.
ADVERTISEMENTHowever, the over-arching question investigators are asking is how a sailing ship deemed ‘unsinkable’ by Perini Navi, the Italian shipyard that built it in 2008, was in fact the only one of the many boats anchored off Porticello that sank in the storm that night.
According to reports from fire brigade divers, who descended repeatedly throughout the week to carry out the difficult rescue operations and search for the missing, the boat’s movable keel was partially raised. It is essential to ensure the stability of the boat and the fact that it was partially raised may have contributed to the sinking.
Divers work to prevent fuel spillage
Meanwhile, Coast Guard divers have returned to inspect the sailing ship under the prosecutor’s orders.
In addition to filming every detail of the wreck that could explain the shipwreck, they also monitored the integrity of the tanks, which hold 18,000 liters of fuel and oil.
ADVERTISEMENTCamper & Nicholsons, the company that owns the Bayesian, is also developing a plan to salvage the wreck, which rests 49 metres deep on its right side. The priority is to empty the tank, followed by securing the boat to safely raise it to the surface.
