Mike Lynch yacht probe launched as investigators look into whether fatal 'error' led to sinking

With the search for survivors, potentially stuck inside air pockets in the wreck, having entered its third day on Wednesday, hopes are fading fast on whether specialist divers can find the six aboard.

Now, prosecutors in nearby Termini Imerese - where the Bayesian's captain James Catfield remains in hospital - have opened an investigation into the horror sinking.

Italian officials, alongside the British Government's Marine Accident Investigation Branch, will be scouring the wreck and interviewing survivors to get to the bottom of what went wrong on Monday morning.

Among the most pressing issues to be investigated would be whether crew had closed access hatches on the yacht before the storm hit, one expert at the scene said.

More experts have claimed leaving said hatches open could have let water gush into the Bayesian, while others have drawn attention to whether its retractable, stabilising keel had been deployed.

Sailing Today magazine editor Sam Jefferson said: "I imagine all the doors were open because it was hot, so there were enough hatches and doors open that it filled with water very quickly and sank like that... The reason it got pinned over so hard was because the mast is huge."

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A probe is also set to pore over whether appropriate measures had been taken ahead of the storm given the forecasts for bad weather overnight and that another nearby yacht was unharmed in the storm.

Italian Meteorological Society president Luca Mercalli added that crew should have woken up guests and given them life jackets with the weather conditions in mind.

While Ambrogio Cartosio, Termini Imerese's chief prosecutor, and his team, needs to determine whether the Bayesian's sinking was simply down to the weather - or if human error played a part.

GB News understands that investigators will begin by interviewing the 15 survivors of the wreck, alongside gathering evidence from emergency workers and divers involved in the search.

Matthew Schanck, who chairs the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, said he was confident the authorities would "get to the bottom" of what caused the shipwreck once survivors' testimonies and a thorough examination of the vessel had been taken into account.

But the divers down on the seabed trying to enter the Bayesian face a raft of problems.

The undersea team - some of whom worked on the Costa Concordia disaster - have fewer than 10 minutes at the wreck site before having to resurface.

Their efforts have been hampered by the "very confined" spaces inside the wreck, fire department spokesman Luca Cari said.