An eye witness to the sinking of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch‘s yacht on Monday attributed the tragedy to the extremely tall mast, which made the vessel more vulnerable to the violent storm that was lashing the area.
Dutch ship captain Karsten Börner, whose own boat was anchored near Lynch’s Bayesian, told the Financial Times that the superyacht appeared to have stability problems.
“The center of gravity is too high with this extreme mast,” he explained, while also dismissing the Italian coast guard’s initial view that the Bayesian was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“I was on the same spot,” Börner added. “I have two masts and they are 28 and 29 meters above deck, she has one, 73 meters (239.5 feet) above deck.”
Authorities are looking into possible reasons Lynch’s yacht quickly sank, when other boats nearby seemed to weather the same storm without issue.
The 56-meter long superyacht had been carrying 22 passengers and crew. Börner rescued 15 passengers and said they told him the ship sank in less than two minutes.
He also described the wind as “violent, very violent,” telling the FT that the wind speed likely reached hurricane strength as “tons of water” came down.
“I never saw that before, there was a water tornado,” he said.
The CEO of the Italian Sea Group, which owns the company that built the Bayesian, previously told the FT that it was designed to be stable with its tall mast and suggested the crew didn’t carry out proper safety measures.
But Börner said the crew told him they “closed the ship,” according to the FT.
The Italian Sea Group didn’t immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment on Börner’s remarks and declined to comment to the FT.
Meanwhile, prosecutors in Italy have launched a probe into the shipwreck and multiple counts of culpable homicide, which are equivalent to manslaughter charges.
The Italian coast guard also confirmed Friday that it had recovered the body of Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah. In addition to Lynch and his daughter, the other victims included Morgan Stanley International chair Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy Bloomer; Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, American jewelry designer Neda Morvillo; and chef Recaldo Thomas.
On Saturday, Italian prosecutors told reporters that the emergency began at 4:38 a.m. local time, when a red flare was launched and seen by the coast guard, adding that the passengers were likely asleep at the time.
Deputy prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano told reporters that a crew member had been on duty, as required, when the “truly sudden” storm struck.
Chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said ship-tracking data showed the yacht started to drift from anchor just before 4 a.m., then traveled about 360 meters over five minute to the spot where it eventually sank some 15 minutes after that.
