Bodies of 2 Italian divers recovered from undersea caves in Maldives
by Paul Godfrey · UPIMay 19 (UPI) -- A specialist international dive rescue team recovered the remains of two of four Italians on Tuesday, five days after they were killed scuba diving in undersea caves in the Maldives.
The three Finnish divers brought up the bodies of a man and a woman in a two-hour operation in a cave system dubbed by locals as "shark cave" at a depth of more than 200 feet, said Maldivian government spokesman Mohamed Hossain Shareef.
The divers brought the bodies to a depth of 100 feet at which point they handed them off to divers from the Maldivian Coast Guard who brought them to the surface and onto a sea ambulance.
The bodies have since been transferred from Vaavu Atoll to the capital Male for formal identification.
The Divers Alert Network divers were brought in by the Italian government because they have experience of carrying out similar rescues elsewhere.
They were expected to mount a second dive operation on Wednesday to bring up the bodies of two other Italians killed in the incident on Thursday that are still awaiting recovery. An official said he hoped this could be achieved without extending the mission into Thursday.
The depth and duration of the dives the Finns are conducting require extended "surface interval" periods to allow dangerous levels of nitrogen that build up in the body while under water to leave the body via normal respiration.
A fifth member of the group believed to be the 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.
The recovery rescue operation has been complicated by bad weather and challenging conditions in the cave system which has been described as a maze, leading to the death of a diver from the Maldivian military on Saturday.
Officials are banking that the bodies will provide some hard evidence as to the cause of the accident for which there was as yet no indication except for conflicting accounts of the dive mission the Italians, four of whom were part of a research team from Genoa University, were or were not authorized to execute.
The Maldivian government said that recreational divers were by law only permitted to dive to a depth of around 100 feet but that the team had applied for and been granted authorization to go to 165 feet maximum for a coral study -- but their dive plan did not state they intended to enter caves.
The university said it had not granted permission for dives of the depth the team had gone down to and therefore the fatal dive was conducted "in a personal capacity."
"The requests submitted to the Maldivian authorities were evidently made outside the scope of the mission authorised by the university," said a spokesperson for the university.
Carlo Sommacal, the husband and father of ecology associate professor Monica Montefalcone and student Giorgia Sommacal, who both died, rejected the idea that the university knew nothing of the plans of an eminent academic as high-profile as Montefalcone.
"Monica according to many, is the person who has the most scientific literature on those corals in the world. There are hundreds of graduate students writing theses on the Maldives using the data they gather together with Monica, or that Monica gathered. And no one knew anything? It makes me laugh," said Sommacal.
Sommacal previously described Montefalcone as "one of the best divers in the world" who meticulusly prepared and planned dives she led and did not take risks.
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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