Bayesian yacht that sank off Sicily killing 7 to be raised in late June under updated recovery plan

MILAN (AP) - A salvage company expects to lift the wreck of the luxury Bayesian yacht in late June from the seafloor off Sicily where it sank last summer, killing seven people, according to a recovery plan agreed with Italian maritime and investigating authorities, the TMC salvage company said Wednesday.

Salvage teams in the past week have recovered 17 pieces of suspected Bayesian debris from the sea floor identified using a remote-controlled submersible. They have been transferred to shore in Termini Imerese as part of the investigation.

The British-flagged superyacht sank in August, killing U.K. tech magnate Mike Lynch, his daughter and five others.

Several days before the 56-meter (183-foot) long 473-ton yacht is lifted to the surface, crews will use precision tools to remove the 72-meter mast. After that, the Bayesian will be set upright and then gradually lifted to the surface with eight main steel lifting strops that will be installed under the hull. The whole process is expected to take several days.

Marine salvage experts began the operation in early May to recover the superyacht, which is on the seafloor at a depth of about 49 meters (160 feet.) The operation was temporarily halted after a diver's death a few days later, and the new recovery plan was approved on Tuesday.

"The salvage teams will now hopefully be able to make more systematic progress in preparations for the ultimate safe recovery of Bayesian, whilst ensuring the safety of those working on this very complex lifting and recovery operation,'' said Marcus Cave, a TMC Marine director.

British investigators in an interim report issued last month said that the yacht was knocked over by "extreme wind" and couldn't recover. The report stated that the Bayesian had chosen the site where it sank as shelter from forecast thunderstorms. Wind speeds exceeded 70 knots (81 mph.) at the time of the sinking at 4:06 a.m. on Aug. 19 and "violently" knocked the vessel over to a 90-degree angle in under 15 seconds.

Italian authorities are conducting a full criminal investigation.

Billionaire entrepreneur Lynch, 59, and his daughter Hannah, 18, were among the dead when the Bayesian sank. The boat trip was a celebration of Lynch's acquittal in a fraud case in the U.S. in June. Fifteen people survived the accident.