A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Divers are using underwater robots in waters off the coast of Sicily today. At least one body has been recovered, while others remain missing. They're searching the wreckage of a luxury yacht that sank there two days ago. Authorities are investigating why it capsized and whether climate change may have played a role. NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from London.
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ANNA BOTTING: It's 10 o'clock. Our top story - intensive searches continue around the sunken superyacht off the coast of Sicily.
LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE: The coverage of this tragedy involving tycoons has been breathless compared to other drownings in these same waters, mostly of undocumented people crossing the Mediterranean in rafts. But this was a more than 180-foot luxury superyacht, anchored just a few hundred yards offshore. Grainy black-and-white video from a marina nearby shows lightning and what scientists say looks like a waterspout - a tornado-like column that can whip up in seconds, exacerbated by unusually warm seawater. It was such a hot night, those on board may have slept with the hatches open, which would have let water in when they capsized in darkness.
DOMENICO CIPOLLA: (Speaking Italian).
FRAYER: "They described the worst physical and psychological upheaval of their lives," says Domenico Cipolla, an Italian doctor who treated some of the survivors, including a mother and her 1-year-old infant.
Those on board were mostly British and wealthy, including the head of the investment bank Morgan Stanley International, and a mathematician and software mogul named Mike Lynch, who was acquitted of fraud charges in the U.S. earlier this summer.
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MIKE LYNCH: I knew I had done nothing wrong, and it was very important to me.
FRAYER: That's Lynch in one of his last interviews with the BBC, just after a jury found him innocent. This Mediterranean cruise was thought to have been a victory trip. His defense lawyer and family were with him.
Lauren Frayer, NPR News, London.
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