British yacht encounters sea storm, leaving six entrepreneurs missing

Six people including well-known British entrepreneurs are missing due to a sea storm. A luxury yacht capsizes near Sicily, Italy.

According to news on August 20, in the early morning of August 19, a luxury yacht capsized after encountering a storm in the sea near Sicily, Italy, resulting in one death and six people missing, including British well-known software technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch.

The Italian coast guard reported that the yacht, about 56 meters long and registered in the United Kingdom, had an accident in the sea near Palermo, the capital of the Sicilian region, on the 19th. Shortly before sunrise on the same day, the yacht was suddenly hit by a violent storm. Coast guard officials said that although bad weather was forecast at that time, they did not expect it to be so severe.

The yacht was carrying 22 people. After rescue, 15 people were rescued, including a one-year-old baby. According to local media reports, eight of the rescued people were taken to a local hospital and are currently in stable condition. The six missing people are of British, American and Canadian nationality respectively.

At the time of the incident, a ship was sailing nearby. The people on board witnessed the shipwreck and participated in the rescue. The captain of the ship said that he managed to stabilize his own ship to avoid a collision. But after the storm, he found that the yacht behind was gone. The crew found several survivors on a life raft and took them ashore, where they were picked up by the coast guard.

Recently, after several weeks of heat waves, Italy has encountered storms and heavy rains, triggering floods and mudslides in northern regions, causing serious losses and damage.

At present, rescuers have dived underwater to inspect the wreckage of the sunken yacht. The local procuratorial organs have also launched an investigation into this shipwreck.

According to yacht industry-related websites, the wrecked yacht was manufactured in 2008 and renovated in 2020. It can carry 10 crew members and 12 passengers. According to the information on the website "Boat Finder", the yacht left the port of Milazzo, Sicily on the 14th. The last known trace was in the sea east of Palermo on the evening of the 18th, and its status was "at anchor".

Lynch, who is missing, is 59 years old and is known as the "British version of Bill Gates". He once founded the software company Autonomy. In 2011, he sold the company to Hewlett-Packard in the United States. Later, he was charged with fraud in the United States due to this transaction. In June this year, he was acquitted.