The family of a bank boss and his wife who died in the Sicily superyacht disaster paid a heartfelt tribute to them today, saying: ‘Our only comfort is that they are still together now.’ 

Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy were on Mike Lynch’s yacht the Bayesian when it sank after being struck by an over-sea tornado known as a waterspout off Sicily at around 3am GMT on Monday.

They were among six people left missing following the disaster, alongside Mr Lynch and his daughter, Hannah, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, and his wife Neda Morvillo. 

In a statement confirming their parents’ deaths, the Bloomer family described the couple as ‘incredible people and an inspiration to many’.

They said: ‘We are grieving for our loved ones and all of those affected by the tragedy. Our parents were incredible people and an inspiration to many, but first and foremost they were focused on and loved their family and spending time with their new grandchildren.

‘Together for five decades, our only comfort is that they are still together now. This is an unimaginable grief to shoulder.’

The body of the fifth person recovered from the yacht’s wreckage was returned in a blue body bag to the port of Porticello this morning.

Of the 22 passengers and crew on board, 15 – including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares – were rescued after escaping on to a lifeboat.

The body of Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, who was working as a chef on the superyacht Bayesian, was recovered at the scene of the sinking on Monday.

The boat trip was a celebration of Mr Lynch’s acquittal in a fraud case in the US.

The businessman, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of carrying out a massive fraud relating to its £8.64 billion sale to US company Hewlett Packard.

The Bloomers were among the guests invited on the ‘victory trip’ by Mr Lynch. 

Mr Bloomer, 70, who served as a non-executive on Autonomy’s board, told the court in May that Mr Lynch ‘wasn’t particularly interested in the finance side’ and preferred to focus on strategy and products. 

The following day, Mr Lynch took the stand himself and he was acquitted in June. 

Mr Bloomer was best known as boss of FTSE 100 insurer Prudential, and joined Autonomy in 2010.

A decision on whether to raise the sunken yacht from the seabed is ‘not on the agenda’, but will be in the future, a spokesman from the Italian Coastguard said today.

Vincenzo Zagarola said: ‘This is not a topic on the agenda. It will be, but not now.’

He also said that the Italian Coastguard’s working theory is still that the missing woman is inside the boat.

The luxury yacht’s captain, James Cutfield, was reportedly questioned by authorities for two hours as they began speaking to all crew members.

A helicopter was previously drafted in to help the search effort, and divers from the local fire service have been seen entering the water with torches attached to their headgear.

Fire crews from the Vigili del Fuoco said they had been accessing the vessel through natural entrances, without making openings.

Remotely controlled underwater vehicles have been used, with naval units and cave divers also taking part in the search, the Italian Coastguard has said.

Bayesian was moored around half a mile off the coast of Porticello when it sank at about 5am local time on Monday as the area was hit by a storm.

The wreckage of the Bayesian is resting on the seabed off the coast at a depth of 50 metres (164ft).

Fire crews described the operation as ‘complex’, with divers limited to 12-minute underwater shifts.

Survivors have been recuperating at a hotel complex in Porticello, where authorities are gathering witness statements.

An Italian doctor at the hospital where British tourist Charlotte Emsley and her one-year-old daughter were taken said the mother held her baby above the waves after the yacht sank.

Dr Domenico Cipolla, of Di Cristina Children’s Hospital in Palermo, said: ‘Obviously the mother and the husband were so shaken by what has happened, it was a tragedy for them.

‘She told me that two minutes after falling asleep with her baby they were in the water, she did not understand how this happened, it went dark.

‘She held the child high in her arms above the waves, for a few seconds the baby was in the water, but she saved her. She sometimes cried for her friends in the hospital.’

Giovanni Costantino, founder and CEO of The Italian Sea Group, which owns the firm Perini Navi which built the Bayesian, has blamed human error for the disaster. 

He told Corriere della Sera: ‘The passengers reported something absurd, that the storm came unexpectedly, suddenly. That is not true. Everything was predictable.’

The Italian Sea Group has also dismissed speculation the enormous 264ft mast was to blame and says only a massive entry of water could have caused it to sink.

‘The controversies about the mast are sterile controversies because the mast, according to those who have seen it, is intact,’ they said.

‘The retractable keel stabilises the ship, but even without the keel completely out the ship is stable and only a massive entry of water could have caused the sinking which did not happen in a minute as someone wrote.’

This morning the Italian Coastguard confirmed the final person yet to be found was a woman.

The fire rescue service said it would ‘need a crystal ball’ to know when they would find ‘the next body’ as dive teams can take up to 24 hours just to move one meter due to the difficulty of moving around inside the wreckage.

A source close to the operation said 59-year-old Mr Lynch’s body was brought to shore this morning.

A fire service boat with flashing blue lights returned this morning with a blue body bag to Porticello at just after 8.45am local time.

Brent Hoberman, a friend of Mr Lynch’s for 28 years, says his death is ‘unbelievably tragic’ and his friends and family had been ‘hoping for a miracle’.

He told Sky News: ‘We knew it was unlikely but you still hold out hope.

‘It’s just so unbelievably tragic for him to go through what he went through over the last 12 years, defending his name and not really living a full life, to now for his death to be confirmed is obviously incredibly sad.’