A DIVER working on tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s sunken £14million superyacht has died – just days after recovery operations began.
Robcornelis Maria Huijben Uiben, aged 39, was declared deceased on Friday afternoon in Sicily and is suspected of having been employed by the Dutch company SMIT Salvage.
Billionaire entrepreneur Lynch, 59, along with his daughter Hannah, 18, were among the seven individuals who lost their lives when the 56-meter (184ft) Bayesian sank near the coast of the Italian island on August 19.
The diver, believed to be a Dutch citizen, reportedly died while working 160ft underwater with other salvage workers to remove the yacht’s boom.
After an unsuccessful attempt trying to cut the section, the divers are believed to have used a blow torch.
Local media speculated that the man was hit by part of the cut boom as it came off whilst he was underwater.
But police said they have launched a probe to understand what exactly caused the man’s death.
According to other local media reports, an underwater explosion was heard by at least one person before the man was found dead.
Around 70 specialist personnel had been mobilised to the fishing village Porticello to work on the gruelling recovery operation, which began just days earlier on May 4.
Operations paused when the alarm was raised and the man’s body was recovered.
On the dock, coastguards and the main prosecutor working on the case, Raffaele Cammarano, were present.
The massive vessel is set to be lifted to an upright position and brought to the surface in about two weeks.
SMIT are the operators of the heavy lifting crane that has been brought in along with another support ship to lift the huge yacht.
The operation’s conclusion will hopefully shed light on how the supposedly unsinkable superyacht fell to the bottom of the sea.
The horror shipwreck also took the lives of Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and wife Judy, attorney Chris Morvillo and wife Neda, and the ship’s cook Recaldo Thomas.
The £14million vessel was caught up in a storm off the coast of northern Sicily on August 19, capsizing and sinking to the sea floor in mere minutes
An autopsy revealed that four of the victims in the superyacht tragedy survived the initial sinking but later died in an air bubble inside the wreck.
Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy, Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda – all survived the initial sinking.
Mike Lynch’s cause of death was confirmed as drowning.
Divers previously recovered five of the six missing passengers – including Lynch – in one cabin on the left side of the yacht which settled on its right side on the sea floor.
Of the 22 onboard, 15 survived with 11 – including Mike Lynch’s wife – rescued on an inflatable life raft.
The captain of the doomed Bayesian, James Cutfield, 51, is being investigated for manslaughter.
Kiwi Cutfield, along with two other members of his crew, are being investigated by Italian authorities for culpable shipwreck and multiple manslaughter.
The salvage operation begun on May 4 and includes floating cranes, remote-controlled robots, and specialist divers amongst other marine experts.
The Hebo Lift 10 crane is thought to be one of the most powerful in Europe and arrived in Sicily from Rotterdam.
The Italian Coast Guard believe the operation could take between 20 and 25 days.
The boat lies 160ft below the surface on the ocean floor.
The yacht’s 246ft aluminium mast – the second tallest in the world – will be cut to allow the hull to be brought to the surface more easily, said coast guard Captain Nicola Silvestri.
About ten steel cables will then be threaded underneath the yacht to create a harness to raise it from the seabed.
From there the yacht will be hoisted to the surface in a complex procedure which will probably last two days.
After the wreck is brought ashore, judicial authorities investigating the sinking will examine it.
