UPDATE, AUGUST 31, 2020: A crewmember of Lady MM disputes the Coast Guard account of what happened. Unidentified, he tells Dnevnik.hr that the crew discovered a fire in the engine room and sent the first distress signal immediately, at 5:15 a.m. “They called us, and we expected someone to come to the rescue after that. We left the ship before 7 o’clock; we were around the ship in the tender for about half an hour, but no one showed up,” he says. He adds that the crew decided to head toward Sardinia in anticipation of the Coast Guard meeting them en route. They used Lady MM’s tender, he explains, because a lack of electricity onboard prevented launching the rescue boat. Regardless, he says, the Coast Guard did not meet their tender underway. “I was personally on the radio and sending a mayday every few minutes,” he claims. “I only managed to get a cell phone signal about three or four miles from Sardinia, and then I called a colleague to tell him what is happening.” Finally, the crewmember says, the tender arrived in Sardinia, with ambulances and emergency personnel meeting them at the dock.
“Here in Croatia, when someone needs help, they immediately go to the field, and Italy, which is well equipped and much bigger than Croatia, allows something like this,” he states.
Read on for our original article.
Investigators are trying to determine why a fire broke out aboard Lady MM this week. The yacht caught fire while cruising in the Mediterranean. Reportedly, all guests and crewmembers escaped injury.
The fire broke out on August 25. Aerial footage from the Sardinian Coast Guard, shared by Liguria Nautica TV, shows black smoke and flames emanating from the megayacht (below). According to local media reports, Lady MM was on her way from Capri to Sardinia with eight guests and nine crewmembers onboard. The Coast Guard received a distress signal from the megayacht at 6 a.m. local time. It therefore sent a helicopter and two search-and-rescue boats to her location, about 50 miles from Capo Comino, Sardinia.
Around 11 a.m., Liguria Nautica TV reports, Coast Guard personnel on site received word that the guests and crew had abandoned Lady MM safely. All17 of them were in a tender, en route to Sardinia. The Coast Guard sent one of its boats to escort the guests and crew to shore.
Investigators do not yet know why the fire started. Unfortunately, Lady MM is likely a total loss, having burned to her hull and sunk.
Lady MM launched from ISA Yachts in 2003, as April Fool (above). She measured 155’9” (47.5 meters), featuring accommodations for 10 guests and nine crewmembers. Subsequent owners had her refitted for their own cruising and charter purposes. She bore the name 360°, among others.
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