Photo: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP
A manslaughter investigation into the sinking of a superyacht that killed seven people will take months if not longer, a New Zealand maritime lawyer says.
Italian prosecutors are investigating the captain of the Bayesian, New Zealand citizen James Cutfield, along with two crew members for the crimes of manslaughter and shipwreck after the sinking off the coast of Sicily.
Being investigated does not imply guilt and does not mean formal charges will follow.
The owner of the Bayesian, British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, and six other people on board were killed when the British-flagged yacht capsized on 19 August during a storm.
While an investigation had begun, Oceanlaw New Zealand partner Karyn van Wijngaarden warned it would not be a short process.
Italian Carabinieri patrol the port as the search continues for six passengers missing from luxury yacht that sank off the coast of Porticello, north-western Sicily, on 19 August 2024. Photo: AFP
"Prosecutors will be considering the events leading up to the sinking and whether or not it was a freak incident," van Wijngaarden said.
The weather on the day of the sinking, actions taken by the crew and how the vessel was run would all be looked at - a process that would take many months, van Wijngaarden said.
A further complication was that the Bayesian was at the bottom of "quite a considerable" volume of water.
"Even just getting to it seems challenging."
The underlying criminal law in this case appeared to be similar to that of the Costa Concordia, a cruise liner that ran aground and sank near the Tuscan Island of Giglio in 2012, killing 32 people, van Wijngaarden said.
In that case, the ship's captain Francesco Schettino was found guilty of manslaughter, causing a maritime accident and abandoning ship and sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment.
"The Bayesian investigation is in relation to causing a shipwreck and manslaughter - which I understand is the same as the Costa Concordia case," van Wijngaarden said.
"It's important to remember we have the benefit of hindsight with the Costa Concordia, while the Bayesian investigation is in [its] early stages."
The Costa Concordia in 2012, after it capsized off the coast of the Tuscan island of Giglio. Photo: AFP
In the Costa Concordia case, it took about three years for Schettino to be found guilty, van Wijngaarden said, so it could be a "really long time" before anything happened in this case.
"After he was found guilty there was a series of appeals and my understanding is you don't start your prison sentence in Italy until the appeals are exhausted, so it could be many years before this is concluded."
For formal charges to be laid, van Wijngaarden said prosecutors would need to consider if any person or people were at fault for the sinking.
"They'd likely need to establish the person failed to do something - like failing to respond when the vessel got into trouble."
It was possible that civil claims or disputes relating to the loss of the vessel could also arise in coming months, she said.