The CEO of the manufacturing company responsible for building the yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily this week has blamed the ship’s sinking on a series of “unspeakable and unreasonable errors” by the crew.
Reuters reported that Giovanni Costantino, CEO of Italian Sea Group, which includes Perini Navi, the Italian luxury yacht manufacturer that built the British-flagged Baysian in 2008, blamed the crew of the 183-foot superyacht, which capsized and sank on Monday.
“The ship made a series of unspeakable and absurd mistakes. Something impossible happened to that ship. It sank because it was flooded. Investigators will determine where the flooding came from,” Costantino said in an interview.
The Basian, with 22 people on board – 12 passengers and 10 crew – was hit by a pre-dawn storm while anchored off the northern coast of Sicily, when it capsized and sank within minutes.
Six people believed to be dead after luxury yacht sinks off the coast of Italy
Italian firefighter divers bring to shore in plastic bags the remains of victims of a shipwreck in Porticello, Sicily, southern Italy, Thursday, August 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Salvatore Cavalli)
The yacht has been refitted twice since construction, most recently in 2020, although that refit was not carried out by Perini.
Costantino dismissed the possibility that a design or construction flaw was the cause of the sinking, saying the ship’s 16 years of trouble-free sailing, including in weather conditions much worse than those encountered by the Baysian this week, made it unlikely that it sank.
Instead, he blamed the yacht’s crew for an “incredible mistake” in not preparing for the storm, which was included in the ship’s forecast.
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Italian firefighters and scuba divers brought the body of one of the victims ashore from the British-flagged ship Beigia on Wednesday. (Salvatore Cavalli)
“This is a wrong that requires revenge,” Costantino said.
Passengers should have been called from their cabins and gathered in a safe place while the ship was raising anchors to prepare for the storm, Costantino said, and other safety measures should have been taken, such as closing doors and hatches and lowering the keel for added stability.
Had the correct procedures been followed, everyone would have gone back to sleep an hour later and “would have happily resumed their wonderful cruise the next morning,” Costantino added.
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The body of British billionaire and tech mogul Mike Lynch was among those recovered from the luxury superyacht. (Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images/File)
Billionaire tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s body was among five recovered from a sunken luxury superyacht.
British tech titan Lynch was apparently on board the Bayesian to celebrate his recent acquittal on a US fraud charge with colleagues who helped him at trial.
The six missing included Mr Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Christopher Morbillo, an American lawyer at Clifford Chance who represented Mr Lynch in the fraud case, and Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, who testified in Mr Lynch’s defence.
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Chef Recardo Thomas, who died in a yacht disaster off the coast of Sicily, takes a selfie in this photo sourced from social media. (Recardo Thomas/via Reuters)
Morbillo’s wife, Neda, and Bloomer’s wife, Judy, were also among the missing.
Divers are searching for missing people inside the wreck of the Basian, which is currently submerged 164 feet below sea level. A sixth person, who authorities say is a woman, is still missing, but the search is being considered a recovery after three days of searching produced no signs of life.
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A nearby sailing boat rescued 15 people, including a one-year-old girl. The body of Recardo Tomas, an Antiguan chef who was on board, was recovered on Monday.
Investigators are trying to determine why the superyacht sank so quickly.
Fox News Digital’s Steven Sorellice, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
