ROME – The Coast Guard of Palermo announced Wednesday that in early May, recovery operations will begin on the wreck of the Bayesian Yacht which was carrying Tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, as well as his teenage daughter, Hannah Lynch, when it sank on Aug. 19, 2024 in the harbour of Porticello, at a depth of approximately 50 metres, leading to the death of 7 people. 

 The on-site work will be carried out by companies appointed by the salvager and the operations will have an estimated duration of approximately 20-25 days. Before lifting the ship, for safety reasons, the mast will have to be cut and once brought to the surface, the ship and mast will be made available to the Judicial Authority, in accordance with the investigation into the deaths of all onboard the yacht.  

 The work is set to be carried out by a special floating crane for lifting heavy loads and the first vehicles, which are all equipped with anti-pollution devices, were expected to arrive in the operations area on May 3. The operations will be carried out under the constant control of the personnel of the Palermo Harbour Master's Office and the surveillance of naval vessels of the Coast Guard along with some Police forces, the Guardia di Finanza and Carabinieri for compliance with the Ordinance of interdiction of the area issued by the Porticello Coast Guard. The Ordinance provides for a ban on all maritime activities within a radius of 650 meters from the point of the shipwreck, which is necessary to guarantee the safe performance of the recovery operations.

 As for environmental monitoring, personnel from the Coast Guard's underwater units will be employed for the entire period of the operation, who, in collaboration with ARPA personnel, will also carry out periodic sampling of the surrounding waters. In order to also guarantee the flight safety of the drone used for environmental monitoring, at the request of the Coast Guard, ENAC has banned the flight in the airspace with a radius of 1 mile from the point of the shipwreck, the coast guard outlined in their statement. 

 Thus boat owning members of the public were urged to remain in compliance with the aforementioned ban limits in order that the coast guard can safely carry out the complex and delicate work that is set to be performed in the coming month. 

 og