Four victims on Mike Lynch yacht died of suffocation, autopsies suggest

PALERMO (Reuters) -Initial examinations of four of the people killed when British tech tycoon Mike Lynch's family yacht sank off Sicily last month indicated they had died of suffocation as oxygen ran out on the stricken vessel, judicial sources said on Thursday.

Lynch, his daughter Hannah, an onboard cook and four guests died when the Bayesian, a British flagged 56-metre (184-feet) superyacht, sank during a severe and sudden weather event off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, on Aug. 19.

First results from autopsies on four of the victims - Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy, lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda - suggested that they died from suffocation, having been trapped on the ship.

More forensic tests were ordered, with results expected in the coming weeks, the sources said.

The autopsies on cook Recaldo Thomas and Mike Lynch were expected to be conducted on Friday, with Hannah Lynch due to follow on Saturday.

The bodies of the dead, except for the cook, were found in the cabins on the left-hand side of the boat, where the passengers may have tried to search for remaining bubbles of air, the head of Palermo's Fire Brigade said last month.

James Cutfield, the ship captain, and crew members Tim Parker Eaton and Matthew Griffiths have been placed under investigation by the Italian authorities for potential manslaughter and shipwreck.

Being investigated does not imply guilt and does not mean formal charges will follow.

Griffiths, who was on watch duty on the night of the disaster, has told investigators that the crew members did everything they could to save those on board the Bayesian, according to comments reported by Italian news agency Ansa last week.

The sinking has puzzled naval experts, who said a vessel like the Bayesian, built by Perini, a high-end yacht manufacturer owned by The Italian Sea Group, should have withstood the storm and, in any case, should not have sunk as quickly as it did.

(Reporting by Wladimir PantaleoneWriting by Keith WeirEditing by Alvise Armellini, Angus MacSwan, Peter Graff)