Emergency workers in southern Italy are still hunting for six people missing after a tornado sank a luxury yacht early Monday \u2013 prompting an air and naval operation off the coast of Sicily. <\/p>\n
Fifteen people were rescued from the wreckage on Monday, according to Italy\u2019s Coast Guard. One body was later recovered from the hull of the stricken vessel. <\/p>\n
Two Americans and four Britons are among those missing \u2013 including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and Chris Morvillo, a prominent lawyer. <\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what we know. <\/p>\n
A small waterspout \u2013 a type of tornado \u2013 spun over the Mediterranean island early Monday, likely capsizing the sailing boat amid lashings of rain and strong thunderstorms. <\/p>\n
Eyewitnesses described furious gales and hurricane-like winds that left an avalanche of debris near the pier. <\/p>\n
More than a dozen survivors were spotted in the area hanging onto life rafts, according to the captain of a nearby boat, who steadied his ship to avoid colliding with the Bayesian. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe got this strong hurricane gust and we had to start the engine to keep the ship in an angled position,\u201d Karsten Bower told reporters in Palermo on Monday. \u201cAfter the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone.\u201d <\/p>\n
Bower and his crew rescued four injured people, he said, before calling Italy\u2019s Coast Guard \u2013 who later rescued the remaining survivors. <\/p>\n
One of those rescued \u2013 a child \u2013 was airlifted to the children\u2019s hospital in Palermo. Eight people were hospitalized in total, according to the mayor\u2019s office. <\/p>\n
The girl\u2019s mother, Charlotte, described how she battled to hold onto Sofia, her 1-year-old daughter, as reported by Italian news agency ANSA. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn two seconds I lost the baby in the sea, then I immediately hugged her again amidst the fury of the waves. I held her tightly, close to me, while the sea was stormy,\u201d she told journalists. \u201cMany were screaming.\u201d <\/p>\n
The mother and daughter were later reunited with the father, James, according to a doctor at the local children\u2019s hospital in Palermo. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe survivors are very tired and are constantly asking about the missing people,\u201d the doctor, Domenico Cipolla, said Monday. \u201cThey are talking and crying all the time because they have realized that there is little hope of finding their friends alive.\u201d <\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s fire brigade dispatched helicopters to aid in the search, officials said Monday. The brigade also said they would send divers to try and enter the sunken ship Tuesday, after an unsuccessful attempt on Monday. <\/p>\n
The depth of the wreck means divers can only work there for limited periods of time, according to Marco Tilotta, an inspector for the diving unit of Palermo\u2019s local fire brigade. The Italian fire brigade said Monday its divers had reached the yacht\u2019s hull 49 meters (160 feet) below sea level. <\/p>\n
A troupe of high-profile guests are among those missing, including Lynch, the 59-year-old British tech investor who fought a fraud case earlier this year in the United States \u2013 which spiraled from the disastrous $11 billion sale of his company to tech firm Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011. <\/p>\n
His 18-year-old daughter was also named missing. Lynch\u2019s wife, Angela Bacares, survived the accident. Bacares told Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica that she woke up at 4 a.m. local time, as the boat tilted. She and her husband were not initially concerned, she said, but became worried when the windows of the yacht shattered and chaos erupted. <\/p>\n
Bacares spoke to the newspaper while sitting in a wheelchair, at a hospital in the Sicilian town of Termini Imerese. She had abrasions on her feet and bandages on other parts of her body, it reported. <\/p>\n
Bloomer, the finance tycoon, and Morvillo, a prominent lawyer \u2013 and both their wives \u2013 are also among the missing, according to Salvatore Cocina, head of Sicily\u2019s Civil Protection. <\/p>\n
Morvillo, an American partner at Clifford Chance, was involved in successfully defeating the US fraud case against Lynch in June. Another employee of the firm, Ayla Ronald, and her partner, survived the incident, according to a spokesperson for Clifford Chance. <\/p>\n
Built in 2008, the 56-meter (184-foot) yacht was manufactured by Italian company Perini Navi, Reuters reported. According to the Associated Press, the boat has been available for charter for $215,000 (\u20ac195,000) per week. <\/p>\n
Lynch\u2019s wife is linked to the yacht. The Bayesian is held by the company Revtom Limited, according to records from the maritime information service Equasis. The company\u2019s latest annual return from April lists Bacares as the proprietor. <\/p>\n
\u201cBayesian,\u201d the name given to the vessel, is linked to the statistical theory on which Lynch built his fortune, according to Reuters. <\/p>\n
The yacht\u2019s mast stood 72.27 meters (237 feet) high above the designated water line, just short of the world\u2019s tallest mast which is 75.2 meters, according to Guinness World Records. It was the tallest aluminium mast in the world, the Perini Navi website said. <\/p>\n
Perini Navi is known for making \u201cgood quality boats,\u201d according to Caroline White, deputy editor of BOAT International, a media group serving the superyacht industry. <\/p>\n
Strong storms across Sicily brought torrential rainfall late Sunday. Initial reports suggest a small waterspout, which developed over the area Monday morning, could have been behind the yacht\u2019s sinking. <\/p>\n
Waterspouts \u2013 one of several types of tornadoes \u2013 are spinning columns of air that form over water, or move from land out to water. They are often accompanied by high winds, high seas, hail and dangerous lightning. While they are most common over tropical oceans, they can form almost anywhere. <\/p>\n
Waterspouts rely on warm waters to gain energy and the Mediterranean Sea has been very hot, reaching a record daily median of 28.9 degrees Celsius (84 Fahrenheit) last week, according to preliminary data from researchers at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Spain. <\/p>\n
\u201cWarmer oceans have more energy and more humidity to transfer to the atmosphere, the most important fuels for storms,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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