Tech Tycoon Mike Lynch and Daughter Among Missing After Luxury Yacht Sinks Off Sicilian Coast

Mar. 15, 2025

Mike Lynch.Photo:Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty

Simon Dawson/Bloomberg via Getty

Mike Lynch, a British tech entrepreneur, and his daughter Hannah are among the missing after aluxury superyacht sankoff the coast of Sicily in the wake of a major storm earlier this week, local officials confirm to PEOPLE.

Speaking with theBBC, Salvatore Cocina, the director general of Sicily’s civil protection agency, said Hannah is believed to be 18.

Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, was among those rescued, local sources say.

Fifteen people were subsequently saved (and eight were taken to area hospitals) while six — including two Americans and four British citizens — remain missing, the coast guard and local sources said.

At the time of the sinking, the coast guard said there were 12 passengers on board as well as a crew of 10, per the AP.

One person was found dead near the yacht. They were identified as a cook from the boat, according to local outletPalermo Todayand the BBC.

Sicily’s civil protection agency did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

The incident took place months after Lynch, the founder of the U.K.-based tech company Autonomy, was acquitted on all charges that alleged he inflated his company’s earnings ahead of an $11 billion deal with Hewlett-Packard, perTechCrunchand theAP.

Via a statement shared with the outlets at the time, Lynch said he was “looking forward to returning to the U.K. and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field.”

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In an interview with Britain’sSunday Timespublished on July 27, Lynch, 59, who was described as “Britain’sBill Gates,” said that had he been convicted, he might have died while serving his prison sentence because of his age and a major lung infection.

“I have various medical things that would have made it difficult to survive,” Lynch, a father of two children, told the paper.

According toSky News, local newspaperGiornale di Siciliareported that witnesses to Monday’s incident said the yacht was anchored in front of the Porticello port when the storm hit.

“That boat was all lit up,” a man in Porticello toldGiornale di Sicilia. “At about 4:30 in the morning it was gone. A beautiful boat where there had been a party. A normal day of vacation spent happily at sea turned into a tragedy.”

A spokesperson for Sicily’s civil protection agency, Francesco Venuto, previously told the BBC that authorities believed the bodies of the missing must be in the yacht.

source: people.com