Italy probes captain over Mike Lynch yacht disaster

Rome: Italian authorities have launched an official investigation into the captain of the Bayesian luxury yacht, which sank off the Sicilian coast last Monday, killing British tech billionaire Mike Lynch and six others.

On Sunday afternoon, the magistrates of the Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office questioned James Cutfield, who hails from New Zealand, Italian media reported.

He was asked to explain how a vessel considered unsinkable could sink, as experts have said the tragedy could have been avoided if all the hatches had been closed, even under severe weather conditions.

The prosecutor’s office confirmed in a press conference over the weekend that it had opened an initial investigation into Cutfield, who is aged 51, for manslaughter and negligent shipwreck.

“We are only in the initial phase of the investigations … At this stage, precisely because the investigation could develop in any way, we are absolutely not ruling anything out,” said Ambrogio Cartosio, the head of the prosecutor’s office.

“We are also investigating why the crew was saved by getting into the lifeboat while the other guests were in the hull,” said Raffaele Cammarano, another prosecutor.

Since the accident last Monday, numerous theories as to what happened have emerged, especially because of the high-profile nature of the victims.