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Guardia Costiera received a distress message from the yacht saying it was on fire
The superyacht Lady MM is reported to have caught fire when off the coast of Sardinia. The 47 metre long yacht was 50 miles off Capo Comino on the east coast of Sardinia which is nearly halfway between Sardinia and the Italian mainland when the Guardia Costiera received a distress message from the yacht saying it was on fire.
The fire was believed to have started in the engine room
The 9 crew members and 8 passengers who are reported to be Kazakh nationals escaped from the yacht by launching the vessel’s tender several hours after the initial distress call and were picked up by the Coast Guard units and brought to shore. Photos of the yacht show that the superstructure was virtually destroyed by the fire and the yacht later sank by the stern.
From the photos the focus of the fire appears to be in the stern section of the yacht and this might suggest that the fire started in the engine compartment. The yacht was built in 2003 at the ISA yard in Ancona with a steel hull and an aluminium superstructure and she was a long rang cruising yacht with a fuel capacity of 74,000 litres and a range of 5500 miles at 10 knots. Power cames from a pair of MTU 12 cylinder diesels from the 4000 range.
The yacht was on passage from Capri to Porto Cervo. The Coast Guard sent two patrol boats and a helicopter to the scene for the rescue. It is not known how much fuel was on board at the time of the sinking but there is concern about oil pollution from leaking fuel from the wreck.
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