Dr Mike Lynch Confirmed Dead, As Search For Daughter Continues

Tom Jowitt,
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Mike Lynch autonomy hp entrepreneur

Dr Mike Lynch confirmed dead after five bodies recovered from sunken yacht. Search continues for missing daughter

Tributes have begun to pour in after Dr Mike Lynch has been confirmed dead, after five bodies were recovered from a sunken yacht on Wednesday.

Bayesian, a yacht owned by the Lynch family, had capsized and sunk in the early hours of Monday 19 August, off the coast of Sicily during a freak storm.

Rescue divers on Wednesday eventually discovered five bodies within the wreck, and later it was reported that the bodies of 59 year old Dr Mike Lynch, as well as non-executive chairman of Morgan Stanley International Jonathan Bloomer, his wife, Judy Bloomer, Chris Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance who represented Lynch and his wife, Neda Morvillo had been identified.

The yacht Bayesian. Image credit: Perini Navi. Mike Lynch
Image credit: Perini Navi

Tragic event

Both Reuters and AFP news agencies reported that Lynch’s body had been recovered from the wreck, citing sources close to the rescue operation.

The search continues for Dr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah Lynch.

Rescue divers can only search the wreck for 10 minutes at a time, and the rescue inside the wreck is reportedly being hampered by furniture and other debris.

The wreck is lying 50 metres down on the seabed.

The yacht was named after Lynch’s research in Bayesian probability theory, which was the basis of his work in technology.

The yacht Bayesian. Image credit: Perini Navi. Mike Lynch
Image credit: Perini Navi

Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares and 14 other people, including a 1-year-old girl, had been rescued on Monday aboard a life raft.

The body of chef Recaldo Thomas had been found near the wreck during the search operation.

The British-flagged Bayesian had been carrying 12 passengers and 10 members of crew when it got into difficulty at around 4.30am on Monday, the Italian coastguard has previously said.

Eyewitnesses said the yacht heeled, or tipped onto its side, in the extreme weather until it began taking on water.

The Bayesian “went flat on the water, and then down”, Karsten Borner, the captain of a nearby vessel, told journalists.

Tributes to Dr Lynch

Meanwhile as the news filtered out that the body of Dr Mike Lynch has been identified, tributes began to pour in.

As well as founding the software giant Autonomy, Dr Lynch was on the board of several prominent institutions including the BBC and the British Library, and was a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

David Tabizel, Lynch’s co-founder at Autonomy, posted on X (formerly Twitter): “It looks like we’ve lost our dear Dr Mike Lynch. RIP. The world has lost a genius. His family have lost a giant of a man.”

Former Autonomy chief executive Mike Lynch
Former Autonomy chief executive Mike Lynch

The Royal Academy of Engineering, where Mr Lynch was a former council member, donor, and mentor, tweeted that it is “deeply saddened to learn of the death of Mike Lynch.”

“Mike became a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and we have fond memories of the active role he played in the past as a mentor, donor, and former council member. He was also one of the inaugural members on the enterprise committee.”

Meanwhile David Yelland, Dr Lynch’s former PR adviser and former editor of The Sun newspaper, also paid tribute to him in a post on X.

“All those that knew and loved Mike are thinking of Angela and their surviving daughter Esme as they struggle to come to terms with such unimaginable loss,” he tweeted.

“We have lost a man who was failed in life by his country and his peers when he needed them most – as he looked for help in the unjust US demand that he be extradited – and he has then suffered the most unfair and brutal of fates.”

Lord Browne, former chief executive of BP and now chairman of BeyondNetZero, and the chair of the Francis Crick Institute, also paid tribute to Dr Lynch in a post on X.

“Mike Lynch should be remembered as the person who catalysed a breed of deep tech entrepreneurs in the UK. His ideas and his personal vision were a powerful contribution to science and technology in both Britain and globally. I send my condolences to those close to him. We have lost a human being of great ability.”

A spokesperson for technology industry group TechUK told Sky News: “Mike Lynch was a hugely significant and pioneering figure in the UK technology sector. Our hearts go out to all of the families and friends who have been impacted by these tragic events.”