Rescue NGOs Wish Migrant Boats Received Same SAR Response as Superyacht
After the loss of the superyacht Bayesian and seven lives last week, NGO rescue organizations are pointing out differences in the government response to the luxurious vessel's sinking. The Bayesian lost a crewmember and six prominent passengers, and Italian response agencies mounted a world-class SAR operation to search the vessel for survivors or remains. The following week, a migrant boat in distress was left to drift for more than a day, with more than 40 passengers in need of assistance.
"For the Italian and European authorities, there are Shipwrecks and then there are shipwrecks, one capitalized and the other lowercase, one immediately rescued and the other abandoned to its fate," rescue NGO Sea-Watch said. "There was no rescue effort by the authorities. That’s no coincidence."
In the early hours of August 19, Bayesian was hit by winds from a severe thunderstorm and then rapidly sank. Another sailing yacht was just a few hundred yards away and weathered the winds without incident, and investigators are looking closely at the factors that led Bayesian to sink while a different vessel survived the same event.
The deceased include British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah Lynch, Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judith Bloomer, and lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo, along with chef Recaldo “Rick” Thomas.
The yacht's owner and insurer will raise the vessel in cooperation with local authorities. It is hoped that the wreck will yield clues to the sinking - for example, which hatches may have been closed or open - but it will be a costly salvage operation.
Local prosecutors have opened a manslaughter case in connection with the sinking. Capt. James Cutfield, engineer Tim Parker Eaton and crewmember Matthew Griffith are under investigation and could face charges, though they have not been formally indicted at this point in the case. Prosecutors have signaled that they are interested in determining why six passengers were left belowdecks
when the crew abandoned ship.
Earlier this week, as the dive operation wound down at Bayesian's wreck site off the coast of Sicily, a migrant vessel was in distress in the central Mediterranean with 43 people on board. According to Sea-Watch, Italian authorities did not send help, and only responded 24 hours later - after an NGO rescue vessel arrived.
"We see active non-assistance for people fleeing to safety every day. Life-saving efforts must not depend on the color of someone’s skin," Sea-Watch told The Guardian.