One Dead, Six Missing As British-flagged Superyacht Caught In Tornado
One person is dead and six are missing after a superyacht carrying mostly British people was caught in a tornado and sank off the coast of Palermo, according to Italian media.
Tornadoes and strong waterspouts are essentially the same thing, with one forming over land and the other over water.
They generally occur in association with thunderstorms, and are caused by rising air concentrating wind shear (the variation of wind velocity) and altering the orientation to give a rotation around a vertical axis.
Developing low pressure associated with the rotation then causes the vortex to descent towards the ground (to be rated as a tornado the vortex must touch the ground).
Tornado development can be very rapid and they can travel across the surface at typically 10-20mph, but considerably more on occasion, so avoiding them isn’t really possible, especially in something as slow moving as a typical yacht.
In that part of the Mediterranean, waterspouts seem to occur around 30 days a year, mainly in summer and autumn, but they are small scale events, so are actually quite rare in any given location.
The mother of the one-year-old girl who was rescued as the superyacht sank described the terrifying moment she lost her child at sea.
“For two seconds I lost my daughter in the sea,” the 35-year-old said as she recalled moments from this morning’s tragic events.
But she said she was able to get hold of her daughter again soon after, despite the “fury” of the sea.
“I held her tightly, close to me, while the sea was in a tempest,” ” she told Giornale di Sicilia.
“Many people screamed. Luckily the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us were able to get on board.”
The UK’s shadow foreign minister for Europe, Alicia Kearns, has said she is “desperately sorry” to hear of the sinking of the ship.
The Conservative MP said her thoughts were with “all the families of those lost at sea” and “those recovering following the rescue operation”.
The decision to anchor the yacht near the port was a “safe call” considering the weather forecast for the night, according to the chair of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council.
Matthew Schanck told Sky News he had looked at local weather readings and while there was a chance of thunderstorms, there was no indication of any extreme event like a tornado.
“There was nothing that was too concerning from my eye so all and all, the captain, using the information that he had, has made what he or she deems to be a safe call,” Mr Schanck said.
He described the sinking as “quite alarming” considering the type of vessel and how it was anchored so close to the port.
CCTV footage has emerged of the stormy conditions that capsized the yacht.
The clip, which was taken from a restaurant in the Sicilian village of Porticello, comes as emergency crews search for the six people still missing.
The luxury yacht was struck by a tornado and sank off the coast of the Sicilian capital of Palermo.
The UK is in contact with the local authorities in Sicily.
The Foreign Office said: “We are in contact with the local authorities following an incident in Sicily, and stand ready to provide consular support to British nationals affected.”
The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo last Wednesday and was last tracked east of Palermo last night, with a navigation status of “at anchor”, according to vessel tracking app Vesselfinder.
This is still being described as a “search and rescue operation”, our Europe correspondent Siobhan Robbins says.
She says coastguard boats are out, specialist divers are in the water and there is a helicopter circling the area as the search continues for the six missing people.
“This is still being described as a search and rescue operation,” she says.
She also says initially the first castaways were picked up by a local vessel and brought to shore by four coastguard vessels.
“The tricky situation is the boat seems to have sunk, according to the local coastguard, to a depth of 50 metres,” she adds.
“So those divers are looking to see how many people are potentially still stuck on the yacht and haven’t survived and how many may be in the water clinging to wreckage.”
A one-year-old girl is among the 15 people who was rescued after the sailboat went under the water, according to Italian daily newspaper Corriere Della Sera.
The girl reportedly arrived at a children’s hospital with her mother, who was given chest stitches for a slight graze.
“They are all in good condition,” a doctor at the hospital said.
The medic went on to say doctors were “carrying out tests only out of caution.
Emergency crews on the ground have carried a body bag on to land after the sinking of the yacht early this morning.
Four Britons, two Americans and a Canadian were initially missing, Italian news agency Ansa reported. One of these passengers, it must be presumed, has died, given the number of missing is now six.
The vessel was anchored in front of the Porticello port when the tornado struck, witnesses have told the Italian news outlet Giornale di Sicilia.
One told the newspaper: “The boat was all lit up. At about 4.30am it was gone.
“A beautiful boat where there had been a party. A normal day of vacation spent happily at sea turned into a tragedy.
“The boat was not far from the port.”
The body of a man has been found next to the yacht as divers entered the water to search for those missing, according to reports in Italy.
The divers saw “corpses through the portholes” of the superyacht, Salvo Cocina, the head of the Civil Protection Protection of Sicily, told Corriere Della Sera.
Images are emerging of the aftermath of the storm off the coast of Sicily.
Local media said a fierce storm, including water spouts, battered the area overnight.
Emergency crews are working in the area as six people remain missing.
The luxury yacht was struck by a tornado and sank off the coast of the Sicilian capital Palermo.
Italy’s fire brigade and coastguard had earlier said divers were searching for the missing people.
The ANSA news agency in Italy said the boat, which it said was named “Bayesian”, had been moored in the port at Porticello and had set sail on Sunday evening.
The Superyacht Times describes the vessel as being one of the largest superyachts in the world.
This morning, Italian media reported that a superyacht carrying mostly Britons was caught in a tornado and sank off the coast of Palermo.
One person is dead and six are missing after the yacht sank.
A one-year-old child is among 15 people who were rescued after the 49-metre (160ft) sailboat went under the water, according to Italian daily newspaper Corriere Della Sera.
The superyacht capsized off Palermo, in the north of the Italian island of Sicily, at around 5am local time (4am UK time).
The vessel was flying a British flag, and other than the people from the UK, other nationalities on board were a New Zealander, a Sri Lankan, two French citizens and an Irish citizen.
Sky Italia reports that the person who was found dead was discovered by a diver this morning. Their nationality or gender has not been confirmed.
A one-year-old child was among those rescued and was taken to a Palermo children’s hospital for treatment.
Mr Cari said a helicopter and rescue boats from the coastguard and fire rescue service were at the scene searching for the missing.