Mike Lynch yacht RECAP: Five bodies discovered inside wreck of sunken Bayesian after divers gain access to master cabin on third day of searches off coast of Sicily

The captain of a yacht who helped to rescue 15 people from the stricken Bayesian superyacht has described how his crew spotted the distress flare set off from a life raft.

Karsten Borner said his vessel, the Sir Robert BP, was about 150 to 200 metres from the Bayesian when the 'extreme' weather hit.

He said his boat was using its engine to stay in position and the crew noticed the Bayesian had disappeared before a passenger on his yacht spotted the flare.

Mr Borner said they dispatched their tender which found the life raft and brought the occupants back to his yacht.

He told Sky News: 'We couldn't see them any more and they disappeared from the radar, we were busy keeping our own ship sailing.

'We couldn't see the ship again so we were aware something was very wrong.'

He said it was only when the tender set out that they found the life raft.

He said: 'It turned out to be the life raft, a 12-person life raft with 15 people inside including one baby.

'They stepped over to our tender and we brought them back to our ship. There we took good care of them, gave them dry clothes, towels, blankets, tea and coffee and so on and took care of them.'

Mr Borner said he helped the coastguard launch its search and rescue mission for the other occupants of the Bayesian.

He added that the captain of the Bayesian told him the yacht had sunk in two minutes but he had since seen a video which showed it go down in 60 seconds.

He said: 'The engineer and captain had no explanation why she sank so quickly.'

By Rory Tingle

All but one of the crew onboard Mike Lynch's doomed superyacht survived because they were awake and on deck while their passengers remained asleep in the cabins below, a maritime expert suggested today.

Stephen Askins is a partner at Tatham & Co, a London law firm with a specialism in maritime law. He has spent over thirty years working in the maritime sector, including dealing with the aftermath of accidents.

Stephen Askins told MailOnline: 'All the crew apart from the chef have survived, which tells me that they were all up. The people who survive these things are awake and on deck, meaning they are able to launch a liferaft.

'I'm sure they would have looked at the weather reports, and you can imagine a conversation between the captain and owner about how the weather was going to worsen, which is why the crew were awake.

'The crew were all up and when it all kicked off they were able to grab one of the liferafts, but other people were trapped below. Things happened so quickly that it would have been difficult for them to reach the passengers.'

Why did all but one crew member of doomed £30m superyacht survive?

Six people including 'Britain's Bill Gates ' and his 18-year-old daughter, as well as a Morgan Stanley boss, remain missing after the £30million Bayesian sank.

At the end of the third day of searches, MailOnline understands that five bodies were found but only four brought to shore.

One person remains missing.

Italian authorities have not confirmed the identities of the bodies that were discovered today.

A reminder of the six people divers were searching for today off the coast of Sicily:

• Mike Lynch, owner of the Bayesian and tech tycoon
• Hannah Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter
• Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International and Hiscox
• Judy Bloomer, a psychotherapist, charity trustee and Mr Bloomer's wife
• Chris Morvillo, a partner at the Clifford Chance law firm who represented Mr Lynch in his US fraud trial
• Neda Morvillo, a jewellery designer based in New York City and the wife of Mr Morvillo

The official death toll is now six - as Recaldo Thomas, the onboard chef, was the first confirmed death from the accident on Monday.

The head of Sicily's civil protection agency Salvatore Cocina has told the PA news agency that searches have finished for the day and will resume on Thursday.

He confirmed that five bodies have been found, but only four recovered.

One person remains missing, Mr Cocina said.

What caused the superyacht, built in 2008 by Italian shipyard Perini Navi, to sink so quickly, when the nearby Sir Robert Baden Powell sailboat was largely spared and managed to rescue the survivors?

'There's a lot of uncertainty as to whether it had a lifting keel and whether it might have been up,' said Jean-Baptiste Souppez, a fellow of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects and the editor of the Journal of Sailing Technology. 'But if it had, then that would reduce the amount of stability that the vessel had, and therefore made it easier for it to roll over on its side,' he said in an interview.

The captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell sailboat, which came to the Bayesian's rescue, said he had remained anchored with his engines running to try to maintain the ship's position as the storm, which was forecast, rolled in.

'Another possibility is to heave anchor before the storm and to run downwind at open sea,' Karsten Bornersaid in a text message. But he said that might not have been a viable option for the Bayesian, given its trademark 246-foot tall mast.

'If there was a stability problem, caused by the extremely tall mast, it would not have been better at open sea,' he said.

Yachts like the Bayesian are required to have watertight, sub-compartments that are specifically designed to prevent a rapid, catastrophic sinking even when some parts fill with water.

'So for the vessel to sink, especially this fast, you are really looking at taking water on board very quickly, but also in a number of locations along the length of the vessel, which again indicates that it might have been rolled over on its side,' Souppez said.

The head of Sicily's civil protection agency Salvatore Cocina told PA that four bodies had been recovered and efforts to bring a fifth to shore were 'ongoing'.

He said there will be an investigation in due course, but the priority was to find those who are still missing.

This brings the number of confirmed deaths to six after the yacht's chef Recaldo Thomas was recovered on Monday and four bodies were recovered earlier today.

The identities of those recovered have not been confirmed by Italian authorities.

One person remains missing.

Four bodies have been found in a short period of time this afternoon but the search continues for the two people still missing after the luxury yacht sank on Monday.

Italian authorities are yet to confirm the identities of those recovered.

As locals watched on in silence, the bodies were lifted onto shore and taken into a tent, before being transferred into a waiting ambulance.

The rescue mission has quickly become a recovery mission.

Recaldo Thomas, a chef with Antiguan roots, was the first confirmed death from the accident.

Cooking onboard Lynch's superyacht was supposed to be one of his last jobs before retiring, his cousin, David Isaac, told The Associated Press.

Thomas was born in Canada but he would visit his parents' homeland of Antigua as a child, moving permanently to the tiny eastern Caribbean island in his early 20s.

'He was a free spirit,' Isaac recalled. 'Nothing rattled him. I've never seen him upset.'

Upon moving to Antigua, Thomas, best known as Rick, started working as a bartender in Jolly Harbor so he could be close to the sea, his second love after cooking, Isaac said.

Thomas also picked up jobs on small boats and eventually went to culinary school and started working on bigger ships.

Isaac recalled how Thomas would be gone for several months at a time and then unexpectedly show up in Antigua between jobs.

'This particular incident was hard,' Isaac said. 'He was just ready to tie up the end of his journey in his career.'

Isaac recalled Thomas' 'big, infectious' laugh and said he found some solace in that 'Rick did exactly what he was meant to do and what he loved doing.'

Three body bags were seen being taken to the port of Porticello.

Hundreds of locals gathered to watch, as church bells were heard ringing out.

Salvatore Cocina, head of the Sicily civil protection agency, said one other body had also been found in the wreckage for a total of four.

Today's discoveries bring the total number of confirmed dead to five and means there are still two people unaccounted for.

The Telegraph is reporting the two bodies initially recovered from the wreckage of the sunken Bayesian yacht are Mike Lynch (pictured) and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.

Sicily civil protection chief Salvo Cocina also confirmed two other bodies have been found and are now being recovered by divers.

Mr Cocina told the newspaper:

On behalf of myself and my colleagues, I would like to express my deepest sympathy to the families of the victims and express our condolences to them at this difficult time.

Let's just remind ourselves who rescue divers are searching for off the coast of Sicily

• Mike Lynch, owner of the Bayesian and tech tycoon
• Hannah Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter
• Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International and Hiscox
• Judy Bloomer, a psychotherapist, charity trustee and Mr Bloomer's wife
• Chris Morvillo, a partner at the Clifford Chance law firm who represented Mr Lynch in his US fraud trial
• Neda Morvillo, a jewellery designer based in New York City and the wife of Mr Morvillo

MailOnline understands four bodies have now been discovered on the third day of searches.