Crew member reports being thrown into water during passenger rescue attempts – Firstpost

A crew member of Mike Lynch’s yacht spoke of being thrown into the water and of efforts to rescue passengers when the vessel sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily this month. The disaster killed the British technology magnate and six other people.

According to the Italian news agency Ansa, Matthew Griffiths, who was on watch on the night of the tragedy, told investigators that crew members did everything in their power to save the people on board the Bayesian.

Griffiths, the boat’s captain James Cutfield and the ship’s engineer Tim Parker Eaton are being investigated by Italian authorities for manslaughter and shipwreck. The fact that they are under investigation does not mean they are guilty, nor will they be formally charged.

“I woke the captain when the wind reached 20 knots (23 mph/37 km/h). He gave the order to wake everyone else,” Ansa quoted Griffiths as saying.

“The ship tipped over and we were thrown into the water. Then we managed to get back up and tried to save as many as we could,” he added, describing the events in the early hours of August 19, when the Bayesian was anchored off the Sicilian port of Porticello.

“We walked on the sides (of the boat). We rescued whoever we could, Cutfield also rescued the little girl and her mother,” he said, referring to passenger Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter. In total, there were 15 survivors of the wreck.

Cutfield exercised his right to remain silent during questioning by prosecutors on Tuesday, his lawyers said. He was “exhausted” and they needed more time to build a defense. Parker Eaton has not commented on the investigation.

Prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano said last week that the ship was most likely hit by a “downburst,” a very strong downdraft.

The sinking, however, has left naval experts puzzled. They say a ship like the Bayesian, built by Italian luxury yacht builder Perini, should have been able to withstand the storm and should not have sunk as quickly as it did.

Prosecutors in the town of Termini Imerese, near Palermo, said their investigation would take some time because the wreck had not yet been recovered from the sea.