Superyacht raised from seabed 10 months after sinking off Sicily with loss of 7 lives

ROME — A British-flagged luxury superyacht that sank off Sicily last year, killing U.K. tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others, resurfaced on Friday as salvage recovery crews readied it to be hauled ashore for further investigation.

The white top and blue hull of the 56-meter (184-foot) Bayesian emerged in a holding area of a yellow floating crane barge. The coast guard and salvage team said the actual recovery is scheduled to begin Saturday, weather permitting.

The Bayesian sank Aug. 19 off Porticello near Palermo during a violent storm as Lynch was treating friends to a cruise to celebrate his acquittal two months earlier in the U.S. on fraud charges. Lynch, his daughter and five others died. Fifteen people survived, including the captain and all crew members except the chef.

Italian authorities are conducting a full criminal investigation.

TMC Maritime, which is conducting the recovery operation, said the vessel has been slowly raised from the seabed, 50 meters (165-feet) down, over the past three days to allow the steel lifting straps, slings and harnesses to be secured under the keel.

Eight steel lifting straps are being used to support the hull upright and to form part of a steel wire lifting system that will begin raising the vessel out of the water Saturday. As it is lifted up, sea water is pumped out of the hull.

TMC Maritime said the vessel will be held upright, out of the water, over the weekend for checks and preparations for its final journey.

On Sunday, it is anticipated the floating crane platform will move the Bayesian to the Sicilian port of Termini Imerese, where a special steel cradle is waiting for it.

What became visible for the first time Friday on the surface of the water was the top of the passenger area of the Bayesian where the accommodation area was located, said TMC Maritime spokesman David Wilson.

When it resurfaced, the Bayesian was missing its 72-meter (236-foot) mast, which was cut down and left on the seabed for future removal. The mast had to be detached to allow the hull to be brought to a nearly upright position that would allow the craft to be surfaced, TMC Maritime said earlier this week.

British investigators said in an interim report issued last month that the yacht was knocked over by ''extreme wind'' and couldn't recover.

The report said the Bayesian had chosen the site where it sank as shelter from forecast thunderstorms. Wind speeds exceeded 70 knots (81 mph) at the time of the sinking and ''violently'' knocked the vessel over to a 90-degree angle in under 15 seconds.

Lynch, who sold Autonomy, a software maker he founded in 1996, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011, had been acquitted on fraud charges in June 2024 by a federal court jury in San Francisco.