UK tycoon Lynch drowned in superyacht sinking: inquest

London: British tech mogul Mike Lynch drowned when his superyacht Bayesian sank in Sicily, while the deaths of three other British passengers remain...

London: British tech mogul Mike Lynch drowned when his superyacht "Bayesian" sank in Sicily, while the deaths of three other British passengers remain under investigation, a UK inquest heard Friday.

Lynch, the billionaire founder of software firm Autonomy, was one of seven people who died when the superyacht sank off Porticello, Sicily, in August.

Inquests into the deaths of Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch, Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, and his wife Judy Bloomer, 71, opened at Suffolk Coroner's Court in Ipswich on Friday.

Detective Superintendent Mike Brown of Suffolk Police said Lynch's cause of death was given as drowning following a post-mortem examination, while further tests were needed to establish the causes of death of the three other Britons.

The British-flagged superyacht "for reasons yet to be ascertained, sank rapidly" in the early hours of the morning on August 19, Brown told the hearing.