STAY CONNECTED: Have the stories that matter most delivered every night to your email inbox. Subscribe to our daily local news wrap.

Rescue crews unload body bag in Sicily port as search continues after yacht sinking

Aug 21, 2024 | 8:19 AM

PORTICELLO, Sicily (AP) — Divers searching the wreck of a superyacht that sank off Sicily recovered at least one body Wednesday, as the search continued for more missing passengers and questions intensified about why the sailboat sank so quickly.

Divers and rescue crews unloaded a body bag from one of the rescue vessels that pulled into port at Porticello. The discovery confirmed that the operation to search the wreckage on the seabed 50 meters (165 feet) underwater was a recovery one, not a rescue.

The Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged yacht, went down in a storm early Monday as it was moored about a kilometer (a half-mile) offshore. Civil protection officials said they believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, and sank quickly.

Fifteen people escaped in a lifeboat and were rescued by a nearby sailboat. One body was recovered Monday — that of the ship’s Antigua-born chef, Recaldo Thomas.