ROME -- Rescue divers are working to locate the sixth missing passenger after five bodies were recovered on Wednesday from the sunken Bayesian off the coast of Sicily. British tycoon Mike Lynch, 59, has been confirmed dead, while Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, is among the bodies to have been identified, Giornale di Sicilia has reported.

 It was initially reported by Giornale di Sicilia on Wednesday that Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah had been confirmed dead after being recovered from the yacht, which sank off the coast of Palermo on Monday. But it has today been reported by the same publication that Hannah Lynch is still unaccounted for, with Judy Bloomer, Chris Morvillo, and Morvillo’s wife Neda identified as dead. All bodies have been taken for post-mortem examinations and Sicilian authorities are yet to officially confirm their identities.

 Divers have worked continuously to find the six missing passengers of a luxury yacht which was hit by a freak tornado on Monday morning and sank. 22 passengers were on board, including ten crew members. The chef of the boat’s crew, Recaldo Thomas, is the only person to be confirmed dead.

 Rescue operations had faced difficulties entering the yacht on Monday but made breakthroughs on Tuesday and Wednesday after gaining access through a three-centimetre-thick glass window. With the yacht on a 90-degree angle, divers were obstructed by debris and objects but managed to enter the sleeping cabins yesterday.

 Hopes that the missing passengers could be found alive have now been all but extinguished, with five bodies transported to shores by the coast guard in body bags and divers now working on a recovery, rather than rescue, operation to find the sixth missing body.

 A widely shared video shows the moment the yacht was hit, seen lit up before disappearing in less than a minute. The video is being analysed by the public prosecutor's office of Termini Imerese, which has opened an investigation into culpable shipwreck.

 On Wednesday, the boat’s skipper, James Cutfield, was questioned for two hours by Termini Imerese’s public prosecutor’s office. Investigators have been looking into the hypothesis that Cutfield made the wrong decision to anchor the boat amid the weather warning, with questions over whether the skipper did everything possible to avoid the disaster. They are also considering whether the yacht's hatches were open and the keel partially raised, with investigations into presumed human error.

 But, as reported in Corriere della Sera on Thursday, Cutfield explain that “the storm arrived suddenly – we didn’t see it coming.”

 The 56-metre-long sailing boat, known as Bayesian and identified by a British flag, was moored in the harbour near Porticello when it was hit by a waterspout at around 5 a.m on Monday morning. The chef of the boat’s crew, Ricardo Tomas, has been confirmed dead.

 The 15 survivors are being housed in the Domina Zagarella resort at Santa Flavia, where they will assist police investigations. Among the survivors are Britons Ayla Ronald, 36, Matthew Fletcher, 41, James Emsilie, 35, and his wife, Charlotte, and daughter Sofia. The British ambassador to Rome, Lord Llewellyn, has visited the British survivors this week to offer his support, as well as to those families who are waiting on news of their loved ones.

 Mike Lynch, the British technology tycoon known for founding Autonomy Corporation and recently acquitted for fraud charges, was travelling on the yacht when it sank. The ownership of the luxury boat is tied to Angela Bacares, Lynch’s wife who survived the disaster.

 British, Irish, and New Zealand nationals are among those to have been saved. The fifteen people inside the lifeboat were rescued by the coast guard, with eight in a stable condition. A 1-year-old girl, Sofia, was also rescued in the lifeboat and was taken to Palermo's Children's Hospital as a precaution. The baby's mother Charlotte Golunski, 35, said she "was sleeping" when the boat capsized.

 "For two seconds, I lost my little girl in the water, but then I immediately hugged her amid the fury of the waves."

 "So many people were shouting," she added. "Luckily the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us managed to get into it."

 Salvatore Cocina, head of the civil protection agency in Sicily, confirmed that the survivors were being supported.

 “The civil protection agency has provided assistance to the survivors from the beginning. The survivors have decided to trust their own experts and the company that was managing the Bayesian, but we are in contacted with them to provide any potential support.”

 bq