Captain Who Saw Yacht Sink Helped Rescue Survivors

A boat captain in Sicily recalls saving several survivors just moments after a fatal yacht incident in Italy left at least one person dead and six people missing.

The Bayesian vessel, a 56-meter (183-ft) superyacht carrying 22 people, was anchored when a tornado formed over the water, known as a waterspout, striking the superyacht before it lost its balance and sank, per Sicilian news agency Ansa.

Karsten Borner, who was a captain on a nearby boat, saw the boat sink “a few minutes” after it was hit, he told Italian news outlet Rai, per the BBC.

“It all happened in really little time,” he continued.

“The storm was over. We noticed that the ship behind us was gone,” Borner told the BBC in a video interview Monday. “And then we saw a red flare, so my first mate and I went to the position and we found this life raft drifting [with] 15 people inside.”

According to Borner, four people were hurt, including three who sustained severe injuries.

“We brought them to our ship, and then we communicated with the Coast Guard. Then after some time, the Coast Guard came, and later they picked the injured people [up],” the captain of the nearby ship said. 

Borner recalled using a light to see that the Bayesian was overturned. He noted that there was a “little baby” in the life raft, later identified as a 1-year-old English girl named Sophie.

“It was a big disaster,” he concluded.

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The child was transported to the Children’s Hospital of Palermoper Ansa, per Corriere Della Sera. Her mother was identified to PEOPLE by local authorities as Charlotte Golunski.

Golunski told the Italian newspaper la Repubblica she briefly lost Sophie due to the turbulent sea but later found her.

“I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning,” the mother told the newspaper.

She added, “It was all dark. In the water, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.” 

The baby’s father, James Emsley, survived the incident, an official with Sicily’s civil protection agency told Sky News.

At the time the yacht sank, the Coast Guard said 12 passengers were on board as well as 10 crew members, per the Associated Press. 

One person was found dead near the yacht and has since been identified as a cook from the boat, according to local outlet Palermo Today and the BBC.

Of the six who are still missing are British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah. His wife, Angela Bacares, was among those rescued, local sources said.

Just months ago Lynch, the founder of the U.K.-based tech company Autonomy, was acquitted on all charges that alleged he inflated his company’s earnings ahead of an $11 billion deal with Hewlett-Packard, per TechCrunch and the Associated Press.

In a statement shared with the outlets at the time, the tech giant said he was “looking forward to returning to the U.K. and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field.”

PEOPLE has reached out to the Italian Coast Guard for further comment, but they did not immediately respond.