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21st Aug 2024

Survivor of sunken yacht sent haunting message to dad after escaping

Harry Warner

Six people are still reported missing

The father of one of the survivors of the yacht that sunk off the coast of Sicily sent a haunting message to her Dad after escaping from the nightmare scenario.

In the early hours of last Monday (19 August), a luxury yacht called Bayesian sunk after the coast of Sicily was hit by a violent storm.

As of Wednesday (21 August), six of the 22 people on board at the time are currently missing.

The yacht was carrying 12 passengers with 10 members of crew onboard as well.

Among these passengers included British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, his wife and their 18-year-old daughter.

The other passengers were made up of the legal team that helped Lynch avoid a charge of 15 counts of fraud concerning the purchase of his company Autonomy by Hewlett-Packard for $11.1 billion in 2011.

Now following the incident a text message from a survivor sent right after the boat sank happened has since been revealed by her father.

Ayla Ronald was one of the invitees on board the yacht as ‘part of the legal team’ who’d worked on Lynch’s defence, her father, Lin Ronald, told The Telegraph.

He said: “[They] were invited to go sailing as a result of the success in the recent United States court case.”

Not long after the boat had sunk in terrifying circumstances, Lin received a chilling text from his daughter

He said: “[Over text] She has only said to me that there are deaths, and she and her partner are alive.

“She hasn’t given me any updates about missing personnel or saved personnel.” 

One person has been confirmed dead so far, Recaldo Thomas, the yacht’s on-board chef.

The Italian Coastguard’s Vincenzo Zagarola said, via Sky News: “Never say never, but reasonably the answer should be not.

“We think they are still inside the boat, that is our very hard idea.”

He added: “Of course, we do not exclude that they are not inside the boat, but we know the boat sank quickly.

“We suppose that the six people missing may not have had time to get out of the boat.”

Since then it has been reported by local media that rescue teams have entered the boat by smashing through a window.

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