The captain of a superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily, killing seven, says he did everything possible to save those on board, according to local media.
New Zealander James Cutfield was at the helm of the Bayesian when it went down in August during a storm.
British tech magnate Mike Lynch, the yacht’s owner, and his teenage daughter Hannah were among those killed.
Cutfield is now under investigation by Italian authorities for manslaughter and shipwreck, along with two other crew members.
Being investigated does not imply guilt and does not mean formal charges will follow.
Cutfield was now suffering through the darkest days of his life, sources close to him told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera.
He had repeatedly insisted that he did not abandon those on board, they said – he did everything possible to save them, but the vessel took on too much water.
Cutfield’s brother-in-law Mark described him to Corriere Della Sera as a “very experienced” sailor who was highly respected by his colleagues.
Another sailor, who saw Cutfield just before the sinking, told the newspaper he had not expected the storm to blow in.
Meanwhile, Bayesian crew member Matthew Griffiths, who was on watch the night the yacht sank, has told prosecutors that Cutfield rescued a “little girl and her mother” from the wreck.
The pair were later found floating on a life raft.
Griffiths said he woke Cutfield up when the wind reached 20 knots, and the captain gave the order to wake all the other people on board, Italian news agency Agenzia Nazionale Stampa Associata reported Griffiths as saying.
Shortly afterwards, the yacht “tilted” and fell into the water, Griffiths was reported as saying.
He described walking on the walls as the yacht lay on its side.
Post-mortem examinations would be carried out on some of the victims on Monday (local time), the news agency reported.
Earlier, Oceanlaw New Zealand partner Karyn van Wijngaarden told RNZ the manslaughter investigation would take months at least.
“Prosecutors will be considering the events leading up to the sinking and whether or not it was a freak incident,” van Wijngaarden said.
The weather on the day of the sinking, actions taken by the crew and how the vessel was run would all be looked at – a process that would take many months, van Wijngaarden said.
A further complication was that the Bayesian was at the bottom of “quite a considerable” volume of water, she said.
“Even just getting to it seems challenging.”
rnz.co.nz