2 rescuers work at the site of a luxury yacht that sank off the coast of Porticello near the Sicilian city of Palermo, Italy, on August 22, 2024. REUTERS/Louiza Vradi
“The boat suffered inexplicable, illogical errors, the impossible happened in that boat … but it took on water and it went down. From where, the investigators will say,” Giovanni Costantino said in an interview.
The CEO ruled out any design or construction errors, which he called unlikely after 16 years of trouble-free navigation, including more severe weather than Monday.
He blamed the Bayesian crew for the “incredible error” of not being prepared for the storm reported in the ship’s forecasts. “This is a vindictive offense,” he said.
Costantino said the anchor should be pulled up, doors and hatches closed, the keel lowered to increase stability and other measures, and the passengers should be called out of their cabins and gathered at a safety point as the boat prepares for the storm.
Six of the 12 passengers died in the shipwreck, and five bodies were found in the wreckage. Emergency services are still trying to find the body of Lynch’s daughter Hannah, the last person to go missing.
If proper procedures had been followed, all the passengers would have gone back to sleep an hour later, Costantino said, “and the next morning they would have happily continued their wonderful journey.”
Another boat anchored near Bayesian escaped unscathed. The captain and other crew members of the sunken boat have not commented publicly on the disaster while Italian prosecutors investigate it. They are going to hold a press conference on Saturday.
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Statement by Matteo Negri; Written by Alvis Armellini; Editing by Richard Chang
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