The company that manufactured the luxury yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily said that the crew members are responsible for the sinking, which resulted in the death of .at least seven people
In his first public comment after the disaster, Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of the company that manufactured the yacht two years ago, stated, "This was human error; the yacht sank because water entered it."
Costantino added to the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera," "The dynamics of the sinking can be seen and read from the Automatic Identification System (AIS) data."
He continued, "We have provided this data to the prosecutors. From the images, it looks like the yacht was sinking for about four minutes. All it took was another gust of wind to capsize it, which meant even more water entered."
Italian rescuers on Friday found the body of the daughter of British technology tycoon Mike Lynch, who was the last missing person among the victims of his yacht that sank on Monday off the coast of Sicily, leaving seven dead, including the billionaire himself.
The yacht, which had 15 people on board, sank early Monday morning following a violent storm. The body of Mike Lynch, aged 59, was recovered on Thursday.
Italian authorities have opened an investigation into the sinking of the vessel, while the UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has sent four investigators to Palermo.
Failure to follow procedures
Giovanni Costantino noted in his statement that the stern door of the yacht was "clearly" open, adding that "the ship’s stabilizers should have been lowered, people should not have been in their cabins, and the crew should have been aware of the storm."
He believed that the tragedy could have been avoided and said, "Why were there no fishermen from Porticello out that night? Fishermen read the weather conditions, yet the ship did not? The storm was on all the weather maps. It could not have been ignored."
A spokesperson for the company confirmed to the British newspaper "Daily Mail" that "procedures were not followed" on board the luxury yacht and that the sinking was due to "leaving the yacht’s hatches open despite the severe weather conditions that had been forecasted hours earlier."
The spokesperson stated, "The yacht was built to very high standards and would not have sunk if the crew had followed the proper procedures."
He also noted that a storm had been predicted earlier, and while fishing boats did not go out, the hatches were not closed.
He emphasized that the design made the yacht extremely strong, but it could not stay afloat due to the large amount of water entering through the open hatches.
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