An elite interational dive rescue team begins a complex operation on Wednesday to recover the remains of the last two of four Italian divers from underwater caves more than 200 feet down off the Maldives’ Vaavu Atoll. Photo courtesy Maldives President’s Media Division/EPA
The final two bodies of a group of Italian divers were recovered from undersea caves on Wednesday, almost a week after they were killed during a research expedition to the Maldives.
The remains of the two, identified as Genoa University student Giorgia Sommacal, 22, and Muriel Oddenino, 31, a research fellow at the university, were retrieved from inside a cave at a depth of more than 200 feet by a specialist international dive rescue team.
As in the operation that successfully recovered the bodies of the first two of the four Italians on Tuesday, three Finnish elite divers from the Divers Alert Network brought the bodies up one at a time to around 100 feet before handing them off to divers from the Maldivian coast guard and diving back down to the cave.
A spokesman for DAN’s Europe offices said the Finns were equipped with rebreathers, which recycle exhaled air and use a chemical scrubber to remove carbon dioxide, permitting “significantly longer dives.”
The bodies of Genoa University associate professor of ecology Monica Montefalcone, 52, who was Sommacal’s mother, and researcher Federico Gualtieri, 31, were recovered by the DAN team on Monday after the operation resumed in the wake of the death on Saturday of a diver from the Maldivian military.
The body of a fifth member of the Italian group, dive boat manager and diving instructor for the expedition, Gianluca Benedetti, also an Italian national, was found in the same location on the day of the accident on Thursday — bringing the total death toll to six.
With the recovery operation complete, the spotlight turned to what could have caused the tragedy.
La Repubblica newspaper reported doubts were being raised over the fact the equipment the team used was for recreational dives and not designed for deep-sea caves.
Some of the divers were equipped with regular 12-liter scuba cylinders and all five were breathing standard compressed air, instead of special mixes — which offer more protection from gas narcosis and oxygen toxicity, which can occur at depths of as little as 100 feet — such as trimix, which combines oxygen, nitrogen, and helium.
Montefalcone was also wearing a “shorty” wetsuit, where only the torso is covered and popular among recreational divers, instead of a full wetsuit used for deep-sea dives. However, experts said wetsuit choice was a personal one in warm waters such as those in the Maldives.
GoPro cameras and computers the group was using were also recovered by the rescue team and the images and data will form part of probes by the Maldivian authorities and prosecutors in Rome who have launched a manslaughter inquiry and plan to question other passengers on the dive boat.
The Piazzale Clodio prosecutor’s office said it would order autopsies to be conducted once the bodies were repatriated to Italy.
The discrepancies identified were in line with a theory that was gaining traction that once they had entered the cave, known locally as “shark cave” and described as something of a maze, they were unable to exit again due to a phenomenon known as the Venturi effect, where the narrow passageways in the cave generate a very powerful current as the water accelerates to maintain a constant flow.
They may never have intended to enter the caves but were “sucked” in by the sudden drop in water pressure around the entrance.
In either scenario, the divers used up all their air struggling to swim out of the cave against the current, with those with larger capacity scuba cylinders likely sharing their remaining air with those in the group with the 12L supplies, who would have been the first to run out.
The Finnish experts from DAN Europe were scheduled to make a third dive on Thursday to try to recover their lines and equipment and try to find more kit belonging to the Italian divers in hopes it might provide investigating authorities with more clues as to what went wrong.
Historic May moments through the years
Wreathes are seen amongst the statues at the Korean War Veterans Memorial during Memorial Day weekend in Washington on May 27, 2023. Memorial Day, which honors U.S. military personnel who died while in service, is held on the last Monday of May. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
