Superyacht victims' cause of death was 'death by confinement,' autopsies show: report

Four of the seven people who died when the Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily, passed away after being trapped alive inside the ship’s cabins and suffocated, according to local reports.

The so-called "dry drowning" supports the hypothesis that the four were awake as the ship went down and had been desperately inhaling oxygen in a tight air bubble until it tragically ran out. They had no water in their lungs, trachea or stomach, according to the tests carried out by pathologists with the Palermo Institute of Forensic Medicine. Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.

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The four victims, along with tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch – who had organized the yacht trip to celebrate a recent legal victory – were found in a cabin on the port, or left side of the hull, after the Bayesian capsized and sank within about 16 minutes of being hit by a predawn storm on Aug. 19.