Sicily
The horror when the luxury boat sank: "I lost my baby in the water"
Hans Österman
Updated 00.58 | Published 00.56
The storm sank the luxury yacht in no time.
Now the survivors tell about the terrifying minutes when they were thrown into the sea.
- I lost my baby in the water, says Charlotte Golunski, 36.
The twelve passengers and ten crew on the British luxury yacht Bayesian were caught by storm early Monday morning.
They were anchored off the fishing village of Porticello in Sicily when violent winds and tornadoes swept across the water.
The 56-metre-long boat has won awards for its design and, according to The Guardian, had the world's tallest aluminum mast at 72 metres. When it broke apart in the extreme weather, the Bayesian took a beating and sank in just a few minutes.
- Everything happened in a very short time, says Karsten Borner, captain of a boat that was nearby and took the injured and survivors on board, to the BBC.
Mike Lynch is missing
A man - reportedly the Canadian ship's cook - was found dead in the water. Another six people are missing, including British IT billionaire Mike Lynch, 59, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.
According to The Guardian, the Coast Guard states that the missing are from Great Britain, the United States and Canada.
Among the 15 people who could be saved is British mother of two children Charlotte Golunski, 36, and her one-year-old daughter Sophie. She and her husband awoke to thunder, lightning and high waves and made their way out onto the deck.
She describes the moments before they were thrown into the water as "the end of the world", writes the BBC. In the chaos, little Sophie slipped out of her mother's hands.
- For two seconds I lost my baby in the water, she tells local media.
So she saved her daughter
But the mother caught hold of the child again and fought the aggressive waves in the dark.
- I kept her afloat with my arms stretched straight up. It was completely black. In the water I couldn't keep my eyes open. I called for help, but all I could hear were the screams of the others, she says.
Sophie and her parents were rescued by a lifeboat that was blown up into the water.
- There were eleven of us who managed to get on board it, she says.
Acquitted at trial
Bayesian is owned, via his wife, by the missing businessman Mike Lynch. Among other things, he has founded the software company Autonomy and is described according to The Guardian as "Britain's Bill Gates".
The guests on board were primarily his friends and business acquaintances, and the cruise was a way to celebrate his acquittal in an American trial in June. He was charged with fraud in connection with the acquisition of Autonomy by Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
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