Tech Billionaire Among the Missing After Yacht Sinks

A prominent British tech entrepreneur is among six people missing after a luxury superyacht sank Monday off the coast of Sicily, reports the Wall Street Journal. Billionaire Mike Lynch was among 22 people aboard the vessel, which got caught in a surprise storm. One unidentified person has been confirmed dead. Details:

• Missing: Lynch, his attorney, and four others are missing.
• Rescued: Fifteen others—including Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares—were rescued from the water.
• What happened: The superyacht Bayesian was "in the wrong place at the wrong time," says Salvo Cocina of Sicily's civil protection agency of the freak storm, which has been described as a tornado or waterspout. In fact, a nearby yacht suffered little damage and was able to rescue survivors. The 184-foot-long Bayesian was distinctive with a 246-foot-tall aluminum mast, which the AP says was one of the world's largest. The mast had been lit up at night, as usual, just hours before the storm struck where the vessel was anchored.

• Rescue story: Those saved include a British mother and her 1-year-old daughter. "I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning," the woman told reporters, per the BBC. "It was all dark. In the water I couldn't keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others."
• Fast sinking: The "yacht tipped to its side and sank within a few minutes," Karsten Borner, the captain of the yacht that rescued people, told reporters, per the Journal. "It all happened in really little time. After the storm was over we noticed that the yacht behind us was gone." A fisherman who helped in the rescue adds: "It could be that the mast broke, or the anchor at the prow pulled it. I don't know."
• About Lynch: The 59-year-old founded the software company Autonomy in Cambridge in 1996, which grew to become one of the top tech firms in the UK. Hewlett-Packard bought the company for $11 billion in 2011, and Lynch was acquitted of fraud in June in a US trial related to that deal.

(More superyachts stories.)