Two more crew members of the Mike Lynch yacht are under investigation | Italy

Italian prosecutors are investigating two other crew members of British technology magnate Mike Lynch’s yacht as well as the captain in connection with the sinking of the ship over a week ago, judicial sources said.

Lynch and six other people were killed when the British-flagged 56-metre yacht Bayesian capsized and sank off the coast of Porticello, a fishing village near Palermo in Sicily, in the early hours of August 19, just minutes after being hit by a dawn storm.

On Monday, the boat’s 51-year-old captain, New Zealander James Cutfield, was investigated for manslaughter and shipwreck.

The ship’s engineer Tim Parker Eaton and sailor Matthew Griffith are being investigated, the source said on Wednesday. The fact that an investigation is being carried out in Italy does not mean guilt and does not mean that formal charges will follow.

Victims of the Bayesian’s sinking included Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah. Fifteen people survived, including Lynch’s wife, whose company owned the Bayesian.

Before the authorities can carry out autopsies, notifications must be sent to the people being examined. The autopsies of the seven victims of the sinking will be carried out at the Institute of Forensic Medicine at the Polyclinic in Palermo, it was said.

Cutfield, who was questioned by prosecutors on Monday, has chosen not to answer. The captain’s legal representatives explained that their client refused to answer investigators’ questions for two main reasons: “First, because he is very distressed,” and second, “because we were commissioned yesterday and in order to formulate a comprehensive and correct defense strategy, we need to collect a series of data that we do not currently have.”

Prosecutors in Termini Imerese declined to comment when contacted by the Guardian.

The surviving passengers left Sicily on a private jet on Sunday. The yacht’s crew members remained on the island and may face further questioning by prosecutors in the coming days.

The prosecutor’s office is studying videos and photos taken by local residents on the night of the storm, as well as footage from surveillance cameras. In recent days, the coast guard has visited all private homes and public places with surveillance cameras.

Experts are baffled by how the Bayesian sank in 60 seconds. Italian officials said it would be difficult to fully investigate the sinking unless the wreckage is recovered.

Officials suspected that the deceased passengers were probably sleeping “while the other survivors were not sleeping.”

In addition to Lynch and his daughter, the yacht’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, the chairman of the board of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy, and Chris Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance, and his wife Neda were dead.