Italian prosecutors are investigating the captain of a superyacht owned by British tech magnate Mike Lynch that sank off the coast of Sicily final week throughout a extreme storm, ensuing within the deaths of Lynch and 6 others.
James Cutfield, a 51-year-old New Zealand nationwide, is being investigated for manslaughter and shipwreck, in keeping with La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera.
Magistrates questioned Cutfield on Sunday for the second time in every week, reportedly for greater than two hours.
Prosecutors might also examine a crew member on responsibility through the storm and survived.
The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) superyacht, was carrying 22 individuals when it capsized and sank Monday following a pre-dawn storm whereas anchored off northern Sicily.
Fifteen individuals survived, together with Lynch’s spouse, whose firm owned the yacht. Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, was amongst those that died.
While the yacht was struck by a sudden climate occasion, Ambrogio Cartosio, head of the general public prosecutor’s workplace in Termini Imerese, stated it’s believable that crimes of manslaughter and inflicting a shipwreck by means of negligence occurred.
Maritime legislation locations full duty for the vessel, crew, and all onboard with the captain.
Cutfield and his eight surviving crew members haven’t but made any public statements in regards to the incident.
“The Bayesian was built to handle any weather conditions,” Franco Romani, a nautical architect who was a part of the design workforce, instructed La Stampa in an interview.
He instructed that the yacht doubtless took on water by means of an open facet hatch.
Romani added that the crew underestimated the severity of the climate and will have ensured all openings had been sealed and the anchor eliminated earlier than the storm hit.
Source: www.dailysabah.com