Mike Lynch: British tech tycoon among six feared killed as superyacht sinks in freak storm off Sicily

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and five of his guests – including his teenage daughter – were feared dead last night after his £30 million ($60 million) superyacht sunk off the coast of Sicily.

The entrepreneur’s wife Angela Bacares, 57, was among 15 rescued from the wreckage of the British-flagged Bayesian which went down near Palermo.

Another included one brave mother, Charlotte Golunski, who had saved her baby from drowning by holding her above the violent waves until help arrived.

In an extraordinary twist, the tragedy comes days after Stephen Chamberlain, an ex-colleague of Dr Lynch – who he had successfully fought a fraud case with – was in a fatal car accident.

At least one man, thought to be a member of Dr Lynch’s crew, has been confirmed dead after his body was found floating nearby while six people are still missing – four Britons and two Americans.

Among the Brits are Dr Lynch – once dubbed the British Bill Gates and worth an estimated £852 million ($1.6 billion) – and his daughter Hannah, 18, who completed her A-levels this summer and has a place to read English at Oxford University.

Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of the capital market firm Morgan Stanley International and a close friend of Dr Lynch, has also been confirmed missing.

Dr Lynch, 59, had gathered his loved ones, lawyers from legal firm Clifford Chance and employees from Invoke Capital for the cruise to celebrate his triumph over fraud charges in the US.

He had been elated after fighting for more than a decade against accusations that he had defrauded Hewlett-Packard when he sold it his company, Autonomy, for £9 billion.

But the celebrations turned to horror when the yacht was struck by a freak tornado while it was moored off the coast of Porticello in the early hours of yesterday.

The violent storm is thought to have broken the 250ft mast – one of the tallest in the world – sinking the 183ft vessel within minutes as most of the passengers slept in their cabins.

It was only in June that Dr Lynch and his co-defendant Stephen Chamberlain had been cleared of 15 fraud and conspiracy charges by a jury in San Francisco.

Both had returned to Britain – after being extradited to the US last year – as free men with a new lease of life after having the threat of 25 years in jail hanging over them for 13 years.

Mr Chamberlain was fatally injured after being hit by a car in Cambridgeshire only on Saturday.

Late on Monday a massive search operation was underway in the Mediterranean.

A specialist rescue diving team arrived on site and hoped to “achieve results” on Tuesday.

The yacht has sunk some 165ft to the seabed, half a mile off the coast near Palermo.

‘Bodies through the portholes’

However, it is feared that those who are still missing became trapped in their cabins, with the first wave of divers reporting seeing “bodies through the portholes”, Francesco Venuto, of Sicily’s Civil Protection Agency, said.

He said: “We’ve been searching all day with helicopters and boats, we’ve found nothing. That wouldn’t make sense, in these conditions we should have found something by now.”

Among those rescued from the rough seas were Britons James Emsilie, 36, his wife Charlotte Golunski, 36, who was clutching onto their one-year-old baby Sofia.

The family were rescued alongside Mrs Bacares who later told doctors that her husband and daughter were missing.

Also among those rescued was Clifford Chance lawyer Ayla Ronald, 36, from London and her partner who her father Lin said was part of Dr Lynch’s successful legal team who were invited to go sailing.

Mr Ronald said: “I have texted with my daughter. She has only said to me that there are deaths, and she and her partner are alive.”

Other survivors included Irish woman Sasha Murray, 29, Matthew Fletcher, 41, from London, James Calfield 51, from New Zealand, Myin Htun Kyaw, 39, from Myanmar and the French Captain Matthew Griffith.

They were rescued by crews from nearby ships including Karsten Borner, the captain of a sailing ship anchored near the Bayesian, who said his team had struggled to keep their boat afloat when the tornado hit.

Fabio Cefalu, a fisherman in Porticello who witnessed the tragedy unfold, said that he saw a waterspout – a sort of mini-tornado – that lasted about 12 minutes shortly before 4am.

Around 4.10am he said he saw a red flare go off from Bayesian but by the time he was able to reach the area about 20 minutes later the yacht had all but disappeared.

“We found only the cushions and a few planks floating in the water,” he said.

In his first interview after being acquitted, Dr Lynch – who lives with his family in Suffolk – said that medical issues meant it would have been “difficult to survive” prison - where he could have faced a 25-year sentence.

He told The Times: ‘‘If this had gone the wrong way, it would have been the end of my life as I have known it in any sense.”

The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch is understood to be sending inspectors to join local investigators examining the causes behind the tragedy.