The father of Kiwi lawyer Ayla Ronald says she's "very shaken" after being rescued from the ill-fated Bayesian off the coast of Sicily. Video / Vigil del Fuoco / Getty Images
The captain of the Bayesian has declined to answer prosecutors’ questions as they investigate what caused the £30 million ($63.6m) vessel to capsize and sink off the coast of Sicily.
Cutfield and prosecutors met on Tuesday at the four-star hotel where he has been staying with other survivors since last Monday, when the superyacht sank in a violent storm off the fishing town of Porticello.
It was the first time prosecutors had tried to question Cutfield since he was informed that he is under investigation for multiple manslaughter and causing a shipwreck.
New Zealand citizen James Cutfield, 51, was the captain of the Bayesian, the boat that sunk off the coast of Italy.
No charges have been laid and the fact that he is under investigation does not imply any culpability, prosecutors have stressed.
Aldo Mordiglia, one of his two lawyers, told The Telegraph that there were “two reasons” for the skipper’s decision not to respond to questions.
“He is understandably exhausted. In addition, we were only appointed as his lawyers on Monday and we need to gather information, which we do not have yet, in order to prepare the defence.”
The Bayesian sank early last Monday when it was hit by an extreme and highly-localised weather phenomenon known as a downburst, half a mile (800m) off the coast.
One of the key questions prosecutors are addressing is how all but one of the crew survived the disaster whereas six passengers died: Mike Lynch, the multimillionaire tech tycoon; Hannah, his 18-year-old daughter who was looking forward to taking up a place at the University of Oxford this autumn; Recaldo Thomas, the ship’s chef; Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International; Judy, his wife; Chris Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance; and Neda, his wife.
The body of the chef was found floating in the water on the day the yacht went down, whereas the other bodies were found in subsequent days by specialist divers in two cabins inside the yacht.
Investigators want to establish what measures the crew took to raise the alarm and why the six passengers did not leave their cabins and escape to the deck in time.
They are also scrutinising whether any hatches were open despite the forecast of approaching storms, and whether the keel was partially raised, which would have rendered the luxury yacht much less stable.
Italian coastguard divers and an underwater robot known as a ROV, or Remotely Operated Vehicle, carried out an extensive inspection of the sunken yacht on Tuesday amid concerns about the 18,000 litres of petrol and oil still in its tanks.
The Bayesian superyacht, which sunk off the coast of Sicily.
They collected samples of sea water, which showed that so far there has been no contamination from the yacht, which lies at a depth of 50m, the coastguard said.
A former captain of the Bayesian, Stephen Edwards, issued a long statement in which he said the superyacht was “sound and seaworthy by design, and to my knowledge well maintained as such”.
“However, heeling her to more than around 45 degrees while in normal operational state could result in flooding and subsequent loss if the flooding could not be controlled.”
He said the tornado-like downburst appeared to have struck the vessel out of nowhere, making it hard to react to.
“The weather conditions that could have created these extreme circumstances can indeed occur with very little warning and being so localised are difficult to prepare for, leaving a very short time for the crew to react,” Edwards wrote.
They are looking to broaden their inquiries and to place under investigation Tijs Koopmans, 33, the Dutch first officer, and two British crew members, named as Tim Parker-Eaton and Matthew Griffith, according to Italian press reports.
Parker-Eaton, from Clophill, Bedfordshire, was the ship’s engineer, while Griffith is reported to have been keeping watch on deck.
Data from the superyacht show that it was hit by a violent storm at 3.50am last Monday and sank 16 minutes later, at 4.06am. But it was not until 4.34am that the crew fired a red flare from their life raft to raise the alarm.
Post-mortem examinations on the seven victims are expected to be carried out this week at an institute of forensic medicine in nearby Palermo, Italy.
Prosecutors said they want the wreck of the yacht to be raised from the seabed as soon as possible, as part of their investigation into how the disaster unfolded.
