Two young women who had been working as hostesses on the Bayesian superyacht when it sank have broken their silence about their horror ordeal.
Leah Randall, 20, and Katja Chicken, 22, were on board the £30 million vessel when it was suddenly struck by a waterspout tornado just before 5am on Monday.
The crewmembers escaped along with the yacht’s captain, New Zealander James Cutfield, and Angela Bacares, the wife of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch who owned the Bayesian.
Leah, who hails from South Africa, and Katja, who is German, have been staying at the Domina Zagarella hotel in Santa Flavia, which has been used as a base by emergency services throughout the search and recovery mission.
The pair are reported to be in a state of shock, and were tearful as they told Italian media: ‘We are alive by a miracle’.
The mother of Leah Randall (pictured right) told Sky News : ‘I’m beyond relieved that my daughter’s life was spared by the grace of God’
Katja Chicken (in green) survived the yacht disaster on Monday along with fellow hostess Leah Randall
The Bayesian (pictured) overturned during a severe thunderstorm on Monday morning
Speaking with a trembling voice, one of the women added of their experience: ‘It was terrible’, the ANSA news agency reports.
They are reported to have been in a state of distress and unable to elaborate further.
It comes after Heidi Randall, Leah’s mother, told Sky News: ‘I’m beyond relieved that my daughter’s life was spared by the grace of God.
‘It doesn’t make it any easier living with heartache of those who have lost their lives or missing.’
Leah was photographed leaving the coast guard headquarters yesterday alongside a fellow crew member.
Other survivors included Irish woman Sasha Murray, 29, Matthew Fletcher, 41, from London, James Catfield 51, from New Zealand, Myin Htun Kyaw, 39, from Myanmar, crew member Leo Eppel and Frenchman Matthew Griffith.
On Tuesday evening two crew members, Tus Koopmans and Eaton Parker, were also named as survivors. No age or nationalities were provided.
Speaking from a hospital room in the town of Termini Imerese close to Palermo, Mr Catfied, in a state of grief and shock, could only utter one sentence.
‘We didn’t see it coming,’ he told La Repubblica.
Leah was photographed leaving the coast guard headquarters yesterday alongside a fellow crew member
Katja is seen leaving the Coast Guard Headquarters after the sailboat disaster on Monday
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch with his wife Angela Bacares, who survived the disaster
All but one of the crew onboard the superyacht survived, with the vessel’s chef – Canadian national Recaldo Thomas – the first person to be found dead in the tragedy.
So far five other bodies – including that of 59-year-old Mr Lynch – have been recovered by search teams.
The tragic discoveries were made as they scoured through the wreckage of the Bayesian.
The freak incident came as Mr Lynch, known as ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’, was enjoying a ‘victory trip’ to celebrate winning his US fraud trial over the £8.3billion sale of his tech firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.
Salvo Cocina, the director of Sicily’s civil protection agency, confirmed two bodies were found in the wreck today and that divers have already brought them to the surface.
He would not confirm the identity of the victims or whether they were male or female.
He said ‘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 and closeness to them at this difficult time.’