Lady MM, a 155-foot Italian superyacht, caught fire and sank Tuesday morning about 50 miles off Costa Smeralda in Sardinia. All 17 people on board, nine crew and eight passengers, escaped uninjured on a tender. You can see a video of the fire and sinking below.
The Italian Coast Guard in Olbia, on the north coast of Sardinia, picked up a distress call at 6 a.m. saying the yacht was on fire. It dispatched two patrol boats and a helicopter. A few hours later, someone from the yacht made an additional radio call, saying everyone had abandoned ship. A Coast Guard team picked them up not long after.
The yacht, built by ISA in Ancona, Italy, in 2003, was on a cruise from Capri across the Tyrrhenian Sea to Porto Cervo, on Sardinia. All the passengers were from Kazakhstan.
Authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.
Lady MM cruised at 12 knots and topped out at 17 knots. The exterior of the 498-ton yacht was designed by Walter Franchini and Luxury Projects; the interior by Janet Leroy. See the video here:
