Sinking of Yacht off Sicilian Coast

[Cesarina]

This is of course an absolutely tragic event.
I'm feeling a bit mean by saying this.........but why is it the headline topic on BBC news?
I genuinely feel sorry for those involved, but don't understand why it's the dominant news story?

If these 2 defendants were Russians, accused of defrauding a Russian company, no one would be doubting Putins hand in it all.

🤦‍♀️

I'm surprised this thread is still here. Every other thread has been taken down.

And it's not just on here. It's been very much talked about where I am in another part of the world, due to nationality of some of the crew. All those threads have been taken down too.

That strikes me as very odd.

It's not HP the company, it's their shareholders. Search them up and yes, that scenario is absolutely believable. It's not about money anymore but hubris. They were taken for mugs and sold a company that was probably only worth 20% of what they paid for, whilst making the seller a billionaire in the process. Even a normal person would be angry if you got scammed this way on a smaller scale. You don't mess with the egos of extremely rich and extremely powerful people.

Why wait so many years if they were pissed off?

I actually don’t understand why so many are desperate for a conspiracy?

@Nanana1 it just seems a weird coincidence that both co-defendants had died in the space of 2 days. If there had only been the RTA or the sinking of the boat there probably would have been a passing interest in the chap knocked down by the car, there would have been more interest in the boat sinking but I don’t think there would have been so much conspiracy theory chat

I don't know if people have always been desperate to believe in conspiracy over cock-up, but there's no doubt that social media has made it extremely easy for conspiracy theory fans to find each other and egg each other on. Nothing appears to be off limit for them. The refusal to believe that children were murdered at Sandy Hook was a real low.

It has occurred to me that if Stephen Chamberlain hadn't been killed in that accident while he was jogging, perhaps he would have been flying out to join the yacht party.

I'm sure I heard it's to do with the depth - but don't quote me on that!

This is the last thing I m going to write about this before changing my name back to my normal username.

Both these tragic accidents are beyond horrific for the families involved. Families of the co-defendants went through years of hell supporting their loved ones through the trial and now this…. The pain felt by the families will be indescribably awful and the media and social media speculation is frankly, nothing but cruel.

My thoughts are with the victims and their families.

The gossipy nature of some of the posts about these tragedies is MN at its absolute worst.

Well it’s definitely in part down to the depth.

Can’t remember the numbers but I think from memory the wreck is well below amateur, recreational scuba diving level, and possibly well below the level where you can breath air…so it’s obviously a specialist divers job and you’re into breathing interesting mixes of gases. In any event if you dive to depth you end up with not a lot of time on the bottom for a variety of reasons.

Maybe there must be somebody here who has experience of all this.

Edit to add: I see yacht is quoted as being at 50 metres…and this link may be of interest:

oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technology/technical/technical.html#:~:text=In%20the%20underwater%20world%20of,the%20realm%20of%20technical%20diving.

@crumblingschools its not a weird coincidence, it’s a tragic one. It was a local who hit Stephen and stayed at the scene so how can there be any conspiracy around that? Sometimes people are very fortunate and are lucky, sometimes they are unlucky, that is just life.

Most of the rich influential people were below in their cabins, the rest of the guests and the crew were on deck and able to get to a lifeboat.

The captain of this boat has 30+ years experience

Then, why don't the HP shareholders take out the HP management who failed to do the proper due diligence for a company they feel wasn't worth the money paid???

What about also suing the lawyers, accountants and investment bankers who should have done the due diligence? Radical notion, I know.

But the conspiracy theories are based on completely wild, uninformed and bonkers speculation, rather than actual facts. Already on this thread we’ve had people suggesting a storm could have been somehow manufactured, that the captain was 22 ( actually 51) and a whole parade of other complete untruths based on pure speculation. It never ends. We had all the same with the Nicola Belley case, Michael Mosley, the submersible. It is sickening.

As I understand it the shareholders did sue HP and the latter then sued Mike Lynch in a civil case.

Mike Lynch actually lost that case bought against him in the High Court in London. Damages to be awarded to HP still to be agreed. Not sure what happens now whether damages can be awarded against his estate?

it was in the criminal case that Mike Lynch was acquitted.

Completely agree, and it is clear people are deriving pleasure from indulging in this.

The riots were caused (in part) by a false rumour, people really need to think before they type!!!!

This may have been done - or a settlement to the extent of the accounting firm’s liability insurance was agreed without going to court.

It may also be that the outcomes of any such settlement vary with the outcome of the fraud case. For example, if HP received sufficient damages back from Lynch and Chamberlain, it would have been unlikely they could “double dip” with their advisers.

It's also a UK flagged vessel as in it is registered here. Being it's flagged here and thus is an extension of the country internationally, it would be UK news just like other stories where UK vessels pollute, sink, deal with pirates, have labour disputes etc. Now it's the UK MAIB going out to investigate.

It's awful news I'd hate to be drowned, poor people.

The public only knows as much as the media will report. The actual identities and circumstances of the people involved may never come to light. Hypothetically, if some of world's richest and most powerful people wanted to execute a revenge plan, it would be incredibly easy to stage things in a way that an average citizen would believe was an accident. They just need a few connections with the press or police or even a person willing to take the fall but guaranteed acquittal of the crime further down the line. It could have been an agent who built up a civilian identity over several years. (Not all that far-fetched considering that case of the USA CIA agent who hit that boy by accident). Same for possibly sabotaging a boat during cover of a storm. There's currently an investigation into the crew for possibly leaving portholes open, keels down or some other mistake that led to the tragedy. That implies there was definitely the possibility that such a disaster was caused by human action, whether deliberate or accidental.

So much simpler to assume human error. Pulling off a complex conspiracy like that is the stuff of Hollywood blockbusters and best-selling thrillers. In real life it just couldn't be done.