PORTICELLO, Italy, June 20, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Salvage workers on Friday raised 
a superyacht that sank off Italy during a pre-dawn storm last year, killing 
UK tech mogul Mike Lynch and six others.

The luxury 56-metre (185-foot) "Bayesian" was struck by a storm on August 19 
when it was anchored off Porticello, near Palermo in Sicily.

It sank within minutes, killing Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and 
five others.

The yacht, which was hit by something akin to a mini-tornado, was raised from 
the seabed -- some 50 metres below the surface -- on Friday, according to an 
AFP photographer.

TMC Marine, the salvage company overseeing the operation, cut off the yacht's 
mast before lifting the vessel using a crane barge.

The Bayesian had an exceptionally tall mast, measuring 72 metres.

Investigators from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) -- a UK 
government agency -- said last month its profile "produced a degree of 
effective lift" that increased the boat's lean in the wind.

When the yacht sank there were 22 people on board, including 12 crew and 10 
guests.

Lynch, the 59-year-old founder of software firm Autonomy, had invited friends 
and family onto the boat to celebrate his recent acquittal in a huge US fraud 
case.

Italian prosecutors have launched investigations into the captain and two 
others on suspicion of manslaughter and the crime of negligent shipwreck.

The operation to recover the yacht began in May but was temporarily halted 
after a diver died.