British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is among the five bodies recovered from the wreck of the £30 million superyacht that sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily.

Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith, Mr Lynch’s lawyer Christopher Morvillo, and his wife Neda have also been identified. 

Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah is still missing. 

Sicily’s Chief of Civil Protection Salvo Cocina said yesterday he believed the Oxford bound teen was among the bodies recovered, but this morning the Italian Coastguard confirmed the final person yet to be found was a woman. 

A source close to the operation said 59-year-old Mr Lynch’s body was brought to shore this morning. 

A fire service boat with flashing blue lights returned this morning with a blue body bag to Porticello at just after 8.45am local time. 

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, 59, is among the five bodies recovered from the wreck of the £30 million superyacht that sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily

Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda (top image), Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer (bottom left), and his wife Judith (bottom right) have also been identified

Rescue personnel work at the scene today where luxury yacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo

Divers found five bodies in the wreck yesterday (Pictured: A rescue boat with rescue personnel on board resume search operations this morning)

People embrace at the scene where a luxury yacht sank, as divers continue to search for 18-year-old Hannah Lynch

Brent Hoberman, a friend of Mr Lynch’s for 28 years, says his death is ‘unbelievably tragic’ and his friends and family had been ‘hoping for a miracle’. 

He told Sky News: ‘We knew it was unlikely but you still hold out hope.

‘It’s just so unbelievably tragic for him to go through what he went through over the last 12 years, defending his name and not really living a full life, to now for his death to be confirmed is obviously incredibly sad.’

He said he hoped close friends were rallying around My Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares – who survived the tragedy – to give her ‘courage and strength’. 

Search teams made the tragic discoveries of the other four bodies yesterday while scouring through the ruins of luxury sailboat Bayesian. 

The fifth body was discovered late last night, but dive teams were unable to bring it to shore before night fell. 

It brings the total number of confirmed deaths to six after the body of Recaldo Thomas was discovered on the day of the sinking. 

Royal submarine captain Ryan Ramsey says those taking part in the recovery operation would be under ‘huge amounts of psychological stress’. 

‘It’s been exceptionally stressful for them both mentally and physically,’ he told Sky News. 

‘If you take into account the pressures that they’re operating under, those are considerable.

‘It’s dark. It’s a platform that they’ve never been inside before, and they’re having to recover bodies. That’s huge amounts of psychological stress for those for those divers.’

TODAY: Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, said searches are resuming this morning, and there will be an investigation in due course

Dive teams continue to search the waters off the Sicilian coast for a fourth day this morning 

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch with his wife Angela Bacares, who survived the disaster

Mr Lynch’s attorney Christopher Morvillo (pictured) and his wife Neda are also among those who have died

A boat carrying a dive team heads out to the site of the Bayesian on the fourth day of the search this morning

The Bayesian sank after being hit by a ‘black swan’ waterspout on Monday at 5am.

Body bags were seen being taken to the port of Porticello on Wednesday afternoon, with the process of bringing the fifth body to shore being described by Mr Cocina as ‘ongoing’.

As the body bags were taken back to the port, dozens of emergency services staff were waiting, and one bag was seen being put in the back of an ambulance.

The body of Canadian-Antiguan national Mr Thomas, who was working as a chef on the Bayesian superyacht, was recovered at the scene of the sinking on Monday.

Of the 22 passengers and crew on board, 15 – including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares – were rescued after escaping onto a lifeboat.

The head of Palermo Emergency Medical Services, Dr Fabio Genco, told the BBC that there had been ‘apocalyptic’ scenes in the aftermath of the sinking.

He said: ‘The word that the mother and all the injured kept repeating was the ‘darkness’ during the shipwreck.

‘They spoke of about five minutes, from three to five minutes, from the moment the boat was lifted, raised by the waves of the sea until it sank.

‘There were truly apocalyptic scenes where everyone was searching and hoping to find the people who at that moment were not present, just missing.’

He added: ‘Unfortunately in the face of death and the face of life there is no difference between rich and poor, between nobles and commoners.’

Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into why the superyacht sank – described as ‘unsinkable’ by a CEO of a boat manufacturing.

Giovanni Costantino, founder and CEO of The italian Sea Group, which owns the Perini Navi that built the Bayesian, blamed human error for the disaster.

He told Corriere della Sera: ‘The passengers reported something absurd, that the storm came unexpectedly, suddenly. That is not true. Everything was predictable.’

The Italian Sea Group has also dismissed speculation the enormous 264ft mast was to blame and says only a massive entry of water could have caused it to sink. 

‘The controversies about the mast are sterile controversies because the mast, according to those who have seen it, is intact,’ they said. 

‘The retractable keel stabilises the ship, but even without the keel completely out the ship is stable and only a massive entry of water could have caused the sinking which did not happen in a minute as someone wrote.’

The Bayesian (pictured in an undated handout photo) overturned during a severe thunderstorm on Monday morning

Rescue workers look at the plans of the the Bayesian as they organise a search operation for six people who are still missing after the superyacht sank

The ship’s captain, James Cutfield, was reportedly quizzed by authorities for two hours as they began questioning all crew members.

Speaking to New Zealand media, Mr Cutfield’s brother Mark said his sibling was a ‘very good sailor’ with eight years of experience working abroad on luxury yachts

The captain of a yacht, the Sir Robert BP, who helped to rescue them, described how those aboard his vessel spotted the distress flare set off from a life raft.

Karsten Borner said his crew noticed the Bayesian had disappeared before a passenger spotted the flare.

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.

Mr Borner continued: ‘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.’

Inspections of the yacht’s internal hull took place on Wednesday morning.

A team of four British inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) also arrived in Porticello to look at the site of the sinking.

The MAIB is looking into what happened because the yacht Bayesian was flying a British flag, it is understood.

The Italian Coastguard said the MAIB is not involved in the search for the missing people, and that it has not been requested to assist.

A helicopter was drafted in to help the search effort, as divers from the local fire service were seen entering the water with torches attached to their headgear.

The ship’s captain, James Cutfield, 51, was reportedly quizzed by authorities for two hours as they began questioning all crew members

The Bayesian sank after being hit by a ‘black swan’ waterspout on Monday at 5am (Pictured: A large waterspout on sea in Campina, Italy, on August 19)

A police boat and divers were also seen entering the water on Wednesday afternoon.  

Fire crews from the Vigili del Fuoco said they have been accessing the vessel through natural entrances, without making openings.

Remotely controlled underwater vehicles are being used, with naval units and cave divers also taking part in the search, the Italian Coastguard has said.

Bayesian was moored around half a mile off the coast of Porticello when it sank at about 5am local time on Monday as the area was hit by a storm.

Vincenzo Zagarola, of the Italian Coastguard, previously said the missing tourists were feared dead.

The wreckage of the Bayesian is resting on the seabed off the coast at a depth of 50 metres (164ft).

Fire crews described the operation as ‘complex’, with divers limited to 12-minute underwater shifts.

Survivors have been recuperating at a hotel complex in Porticello, where authorities were gathering witness statements.

The boat trip was a celebration of Mr Lynch’s acquittal in a fraud case in the US.

The businessman, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of carrying out a massive fraud relating to its 11 billion US dollar (£8.64 billion) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.

The Financial Times reported that Mr Bloomer appeared at trial as a defence witness for Mr Lynch, while media reports suggest the pair are close friends.

In a separate incident, Mr Lynch’s co-defendant in his US fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being hit by a car while out running in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.