Sicily shipwreck: ‘Diving for bodies is our job, but finding Hannah was emotional’

As prosecutors consider manslaughter charges in connection with the Paisey tragedy, rescue crews describe the moment they discovered the body of Mike Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah.

The diver who searched the wreck of the Baisi for missing passengers has spoken of his team’s intense emotional reaction when Hannah’s body was recovered.

The 18-year-old daughter of British businessman Mike Lynch died along with six others when her boat capsized in rough weather off Sicily last Monday.

The bodies of six people, still wearing their pajamas, were pulled from the wreckage. According to the Times.

Banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judith and lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Nida were found together in a cabin and their bodies were recovered Wednesday. Mike Lynch was pulled from the same cabin Thursday. His daughter’s body was found in another cabin and brought to shore Friday.

Hannah’s tracking was different.

“Finding bodies underwater is our job, you get used to it and control your emotions, but finding the girl was different, it was an emotional moment because she was so young,” said Fabio Paoletti, 56, a member of the diving team of Italian firefighters.

Investigators are reviewing videos and photos taken the night of the storm that show the ship’s final minutes.

The Baezi sank stern first before settling on its starboard side 50 metres below sea level, said fire service official Girolamo Fiandra. He said it was possible that the trapped passengers on board sought safety on the side of the ship closest to the surface because “that’s where the last pockets of air are”.

The body of the boat’s cook, Ricaldo Tomas, was found floating next to the boat in the hours after it sank. Friends of Tomas said they believe he may have died trying to rescue others from the boat.

They dived 136 times.

During the four-day operation, pairs of divers descended onto the sunken yacht 136 times, spending a total of 4,170 minutes underwater, a fire department spokesman said.

A cable was extended from the surface to the ship so divers could quickly get to where they wanted to search, Paoletti said. Divers can only spend a short amount of time safely underwater at such extreme depths.

Hannah Lynch was the latest dead passenger on the ill-fated luxury yacht that divers were searching for as five other bodies were recovered in the previous days.

“The first thing we did when we got to the boat was take out a spare oxygen cylinder and leave it there to use on the way back — that way we could move around the boat more easily,” Paoletti said.

The entrance his team chose was a door near the center of the yacht, near the mast. “We entered a large room, but I couldn’t tell how big it was because I couldn’t see the walls. It led to a staircase leading to a narrow corridor connecting to the cabins.

“When entering Bayzi we had to check for any obstacles that might prevent our exit, which was vital because you only had a short time to get out,” he said. “That meant looking for a door or a cover that could be opened or a curtain that could block our way. You clear the way.”

Many obstacles

Bodies were swirling in the darkness, making it difficult to move forward. “You find suitcases, suitcases that had fallen out of the lockers when the boat capsized, the contents of drawers. Then there were mattresses, tables, bedheads, even floor tiles falling from the floor.

As the planks were torn from the walls, electrical cables and light switches were severed, adding to the debris that was blocking the divers’ path, he said. “Once you got to the cabins, clothes and blankets were falling off, but in those 12 minutes you knew you couldn’t lose a second,” he said.

Now that authorities have turned their attention to the rescue and recovery operation, they will now look at how to raise the yacht from the bottom. The fuel must first be drained from it and no timetable has been set for the operation yet.