The captain of the Bayesian superyacht is to be investigated for multiple manslaughter and shipwreck after seven people died when the vessel sunk last week, according to Italian media reports.
Italian prosecutors are expected to name 51-year-old James Cutfield, a New Zealand citizen, on Monday or Tuesday before launching an investigation, the Adnkronos news agency reported.
Such an investigation would not imply guilt or any certainty that formal charges will follow. Under maritime law, a captain has absolute responsibility for the ship, its crew and the safety of everyone on board.
The Ansa agency reported that the captain was heard by magistrates for two hours on Sunday. Newspaper La Republica suggested prosecutors could investigate another surviving crew member who was on duty at the time of the incident.
The news comes after Ambrogio Cartosio, head of the public prosecutor’s office in Termini Imerese, which is in Sicily, said on Saturday that his office had opened an initial investigation into manslaughter and negligent shipwreck.
The 184-ft long Bayesian sunk off Palermo during a storm early last Monday while carrying 22 people.
UK tech mogul Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, his wife Neda, and Recaldo Thomas, a chef on the vessel, all died in the accident.
The trip was reportedly organised to celebrate Lynch’s acquittal in June following a more than decade-long legal battle over the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard in 2011.
Cutfield and eight other crew members survived the wreck. All are understood to be remaining at the Hotel Domina Zagarella in Sicily for questioning.
Prosecutors in Termini Imerese have declined to comment on Cutfield, while none of the surviving crew members have commented on the investigation. Cutfield told Italian media last week that he “did not see” the storm coming.