A survivor of the doomed Bayesian has shared a disturbing revelation with her father as she is left “very shaken” after surviving the sinking of the superyacht off the coast of Sicily.
Ayla Ronald, a senior partner at law firm Clifford Chance, was one of 22 people on board the British-flagged ship when a tornado struck the area where it was anchored around 5am on Monday.
Ronald, 36, and his partner Matthew Fletcher were invited aboard the Bayesian to celebrate the acquittal of tech mogul Mike Lynch in “one of the biggest fraud cases ever seen in Silicon Valley” alongside friends and family.
“Ayla is a lawyer who is part of the legal team that has been brought in to sail following the success of the recent US trial,” Ronald’s father, Lin Ronald, told the Telegraph.
“I texted my daughter and she hasn’t given me any news about the missing or rescued staff,” he said.
“She only told me that there were dead people, and that she and her partner were alive.”
Ayla Ronald’s phone was the only one with battery and she was helping coordinate with first responders, according to the New Zealand Herald.
Lin told the outlet that her daughter was “very shaken” after the incident.
Originally from Christchurch, New Zealand, she studied at the University of Otago before moving to London where she worked for several years.
“We are shocked and deeply saddened by this tragic incident,” Clifford Chance said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with our partner, Christopher Morvillo, and his wife Neda, who are among those lost, and their families.”
“Our top priority is to support the family and our colleague Ayla Ronald, who along with her partner, fortunately survived the incident,” the statement continued. “Our thoughts are with the other passengers and crew and all those affected.”
What you need to know after a tornado sank the yacht Bayesian off the coast of Sicily, leaving one dead and six missing:
- A superyacht capsized off the coast of Sicily after a tornado struck the area early Monday, killing one passenger and leaving five others missing – including Michael Lynch, a tech mogul known as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” authorities said.
- According to the Telegraph, Lynch had invited guests from the law firm that represented him, Clifford Chance, and Invoke Capital, his own company, on the trip.
- Captain James Catfield, who piloted the 184-foot British-flagged aircraft, was among 15 crew and passengers to survive after the tornado struck before sunrise Monday.
- Security camera footage taken 650 feet from where the Bayesian sank Monday shows it slowly disappearing.
- Italian authorities said the chances of the passengers surviving the disaster were very low, but “never say never”.
Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife Judy are among the six people still missing.
Angela Bacares, the yacht’s owner and Lynch’s wife, was among the 15 people rescued.
A body, believed to be that of the ship’s captain, Thomas Recaldo, of Canadian origin, was recovered from the wreck.
Lynch’s three-month trial, which took place in federal court in San Francisco, focused on allegations that Lynch conspired to inflate revenue at his software company Autonomy when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011.
In one year, the American technology company was forced to reduce the value of Autonomy by 8.8 billion dollars.
On June 6, a jury found Lynch, 59, of Irish descent, not guilty of 15 counts of conspiracy and wire fraud.
