A survivor of the luxury superyacht that sank near Sicily during a violent storm says she saved her 1-year-old by holding her above the rough and choppy waters.
The mother has been identified as 35-year-old Charlotte Golunski by Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata (ANSA), an Italian national news agency. She was among the 12 passengers and 10 crew members on board the Bayesian, a 184-foot sailboat, when it capsized in the early hours of Aug. 19 off the coast of Sicily, a village in southern Italy. The boat belonged to British tech magnate, Mike Lynch, who is still missing, along with five others.
Speaking to la Repubblica, an Italian newspaper, Golunski recounted battling turbulent waves to keep her daughter alive.
“I kept her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards so she wouldn’t drown. It was all dark. In the water, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I was screaming for help, but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”
In a separate interview with ANSA, Golunski is reported to have briefly lost her daughter while in the water.
“For two seconds, I lost the child in the water; then I immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves. I held her tightly, close to me, while the sea was stormy. Many were screaming.”
“Luckily, the lifeboat inflated, and 11 of us managed to get on it. It was terrible. In a few minutes, the boat was hit by a very strong wind and sank shortly after.”
Golunski was on board the yacht with the child’s father, James Emsili, who also survived the incident.
Several passengers and crew on board the ship are still missing. Read on for more about the luxury yacht accident that occurred near Sicily.
How did the yacht sink in Sicily?
In a statement obtained by NBC News, Italy’s coast guard confirmed that the Bayesian sank “due to a violent storm” off Palermo at around 5 a.m. local time (11 p.m. ET).
Who was on the yacht that sunk?
Twelve passengers and 10 crew members were on board a superyacht called the “Bayesian” when it was hit by a storm and capsized.
According to NBC News, the ship’s passengers were American, British and Canadian citizens.
So far, 15 people have been rescued, and one death has been confirmed. The body of the ship’s cook, Ricardo Thomas, was recovered on Aug. 19.
Mike Lynch, a 59-year-old British Irish entrepreneur dubbed by the U.K. media as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” was also on the ship, according to NBC News. Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, are among the six people who’ve yet to be accounted for in the search for the missing. His wife, Angela Bacares, was among the rescued.
Did Mike Lynch own the yacht?
The superyacht Bayesian belonged to Mike Lynch. The technology entrepreneur was also the co-founder of Autonomy Corporation, a software company, and Invoke Capital, a venture capital fund.
