Why it took divers so long to find body of Mike Lynch's daughter Hannah on sunken yacht

The bodies of all six people who were missing after the Bayesian yacht sunk have now been recovered.

The 56-metre luxury superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday, August 19, during a powerful storm.

The boat had been carrying 22 people at the time and 15 of those were initially rescued. The body of Recaldo Thomas, who was working as a chef on the superyacht, was recovered at the scene on the same day.

READ MORE: New Mike and Hannah Lynch photos released by family as 'manslaughter' case opens after bodies found in yacht

However six people remained missing until five bodies were pulled from the water on Wednesday. They were British billionaire Mike Lynch, who owned the boat; Jonathan Bloomer; his wife Judith Bloomer; lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo.

On Friday the body of Mike's teenage daughter Hannah was then found and recovered.

Expert divers, who have been at the scene since Monday, described the operation to locate and retrieve the bodies as 'difficult'. The sunken ship sits fully intact on its starboard side around 50m underwater on the seabed.

As a result of this only experienced divers are able to make the descent to the yacht, and once there can only spent around 12 minutes a time at the wreckage site.

The rescue team previously explained that the search had been made especially difficult by the amount of debris blocking accessibility to all areas of the yacht. It is therefore understood that the body believed to be that of Hannah Lynch had been trapped behind objects, reports The Mirror.

Vincenzo Zagarola, of the Italian Coastguard, said the search for Hannah was not “easy or quick”, comparing the sunken yacht to an “18-storey building full of water”.