Crew on sunken yacht that killed 7 passengers explain what happened
The captain and two crew members of the sunken yacht that killed seven passengers have now detailed what had happened before the tragedy as they face investigations from authorities.
According to multiple Italian news outlets carried by PEOPLE, police are currently questioning sailor Matthew Griffiths, who was on watch duty at the time, the ship’s engineer Tim Parker Eaton, and captain James Cutfield on what caused the Bayesian to sink in a pre-dawn storm on Aug. 19, killing British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, his daughter, and five others.
"I woke up the captain when the wind was at 20 knots [23 mph]. He gave the order to wake everyone else up," Griffiths recounted.
"The ship tilted and we were thrown into the water. Then we … tried to save those we could," he said, adding that they were "walking on the walls" when the boat was tilted.
The sailor claimed that when the tragedy struck, some of the crew attempted to save some of the passengers by creating a human chain to reach the area they were in.
While Eaton claimed that the Bayesian’s hatches were closed except for an entry to the engine when the storm happened, investigators have yet to piece together how the luxury yacht fell victim to the weather.
Meanwhile, Karsten Borner, a captain of a boat that was nearby at the time, told PEOPLE that the weather turned violent "very quickly" around three in the morning.
"The Bayesian was there at the time. It was anchored like us. We kept an eye on it. We had turned the engine on to maintain our position in case the anchor didn’t hold and were carefully watching it to keep at a distance from it as well. We were the only two ships out in the bay," he said.
"We checked the AIS [automatic identification system], and we also couldn't see the Bayesian anymore. Two passengers and two crew members saw what looked like a whale in the water and realized afterward it was the capsized boat," he continued.
After seeing a red flare being shot in the sky, Borner and his first mate decided to head to the direction where the Bayesian had been and were met with "things floating in the water like cushions and chairs and stuff."
"And then we saw a flickering light. This was a life raft with a light on the top. And they also waved at us with a torch, so we went there and then we found the crew and part of the passengers—15 people in a 12-person raft, including a little baby, he said.
No formal charges have been filed against Griffiths, Eaton, and Cutfield, but the three are now under investigation for potential multiple manslaughter and negligent shipwreck charges.
