The first photos from inside the doomed Maldives cave system where five Italian divers died have now been released by the team that recovered their bodies.
The group, all from Italy, set off to explore deep-sea caverns in the Vaavu Atoll last Thursday, but never resurfaced.Â
For the first time, images published by diving organisation Dan Europe show the narrow underwater passages where the Italian divers perished, with light quickly fading into near-total darkness.
Clouds of disturbed coral sediment can also be seen hanging in the water, illustrating how visibility can rapidly disappear inside the cramped tunnels.
Sharing the pictures on social media, Dan Europe described how the series of images ‘documents the more confined inner sections of the cave, where visibility can rapidly disappear due to disturbed coral sediment and navigation becomes more complex.Â
‘These are the environments where the rescue team operated during the search [and] recovery mission over the past days.’
It added:Â ‘Natural light still filters through the entrance before the system descends into darkness.’Â
The group of five included Monica Montefalcone, a marine biology professor with many years of experience; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal; two young researchers, Federico Gualtieri and Muriel Oddenino; and their Maldives-based guide, Benedetti.Â
The first photos from inside the doomed Maldives cave system where five Italian divers died have now been released by the organisation involved in the expedition
Images published by DAN Europe show the eerie underwater passages where visibility vanished as rescuers searched for the trapped group more than 60 metres below the surface
Sharing the pictures on Instagram , the diving organisation said: ‘Natural light still filters through the entrance before the system descends into darkness’
The bodies of Monica Montefalcone, 52, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 20, Muriel Oddenino, 31, and Federico Gualtieri, 31, were found on Monday near the mouth of the third and final chamber of the caves in the Vaavu Atoll, at a depth of around 50 metres
The body of diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti was found near the mouth of the Thinwana Kandu cave on the day the divers disappeared
Images published by Dan Europe show the narrow underwater passages where the divers’ bodies were found, with light quickly fading into near-total darkness
Benedetti’s body was found near the mouth of the Thinwana Kandu cave on the day the divers disappeared, while the remaining four bodies were located in the cavern’s third and final chamber on Monday at a depth of around 165ft.
Mystery has clouded the tragedy, which has been called the worst diving incident in the island nation, as investigators try to determine how the group of experienced scuba divers met their fate.Â
Expert divers from Finland who recovered the bodies this week have suggested the group may have taken the wrong tunnel on their way out of an underwater cave.
The pro-divers, working for Dan Europe, found the Italians in a corridor with a dead end inside the cave complex, Italy’s daily newspaper La Repubblica reported.
‘There was no way out from there,’ the company’s CEO, Laura Marroni, was quoted by La Repubblica as saying.
The Finnish divers found the cave near Alimatha begins with a first large, very bright cavern with a sandy bottom, Marroni told the newspaper.
At the end of this room is a corridor where there is little light, but ‘visibility, using artificial lighting, was excellent’, she said.
The corridor is almost 30 metres long and three metres across and leads to a second chamber of the cave, which is a large, round space with no natural light.
Between the corridor and the second chamber is a sandbank.
It is easy to get over the sandbank into the second chamber, but when you turn around to leave again, the bank almost looks like a wall, hiding the corridor, La Repubblica reported.
On the left of the sandbank is another corridor – only a few dozen metres long.
‘The divers’ bodies were all found inside, as if they had mistaken it for the right one,’ Marroni told the paper.
If they had taken that corridor by mistake, ‘then it would have been very difficult to return, especially with the limited air supply’, Marroni said.
The divers were using standard tanks, meaning that, at that depth, they had very little time to visit the second cave, she said.
Monica Montefalcone, 51, who died, was a respected marine biologist, TV personality and professor of Tropical Marine Ecology and Underwater Science at the University of Genoa
Montefalcone’s daugter, Giorgia, is among the five divers who diedÂ
Researcher Muriel Oddenino’s body was recovered from a deep-sea cave on Wednesday
Gianluca Benedetti, 44, was a diving instructor. His body was the first to be found last weekÂ
Federico Gualtieri, 31, was a researcher and diver among the five who died in the Maldives last weekÂ
‘We’re talking about 10 minutes, maybe even less,’ Marroni added.
‘Realising that the path is the wrong one and having little air, perhaps after going back and forth, is terrifying. Then you breathe quickly, and the air supply decreases,’ she said.
The Finnish team was made up of three divers: one tasked with recovering the bodies, the second with operational safety support, and the third documenting the recovery and dive site.
The divers ‘are highly trained’ and ‘conducted an extensive reconnaissance with us, and developed a conservative dive plan, considering that no one knew the cave well’, Marroni said.
‘This type of operation always involves a great deal of responsibility, emotional toll, and a strong desire to return bodies to their families,’ she said.
The team recovered the bodies on Tuesday and Wednesday.
One of the divers, 54-year-old Patrik Gronqvist, told AFP by telephone that they ‘had started to see some traces on the bottom, as if there had been some kind of activity’, leading them to find all four bodies in a pitch-black hole in the cave.
‘The bodies were here and there,’ within an area of two to three metres, he said.
‘Three were on the floor (of the cave) and one in the roof.’
Gronqvist said the mission had not been as ‘technically challenging’ as previous operations he has been involved in.
A team of Finnish experts has suggested the group of five who died while diving in the Maldives may have taken the wrong tunnel on their way out of an underwater cave. Above, a recovery dive to find the remaining bodies on Wednesday
‘But this operation was very sad… I will never forget it,’ he said.
The divers returned to the cave on Thursday to remove guide lines and operational equipment used inside the cave system during the recovery efforts.
‘Much like at a crime scene, everything is documented, archived, and then cleaned up,’ Marroni said.
Authorities in the Maldives are investigating how the Italians were allowed to descend to a depth of nearly 200ft when the Indian Ocean country permits a maximum depth of 98ft for tourists.
The Finnish divers recovered the technical equipment, including GoPro cameras worn by some of the group, which officials hope will give them a better understanding of how the tragedy unfolded.
It comes as the bodies of the last two divers – Sommacal and Oddenino – were recovered on Wednesday, bringing recovery efforts to an end.
Montefalcone’s husband, Carlo Sommacal, said in interviews to Italian media that his wife would have never put her daughter or others at risk.
He described her as ‘one of the best divers in the world’ who had carried out about 5,000 dives and was ‘always conscientious’ and ‘never reckless’.
‘I’m sorry, I wasn’t there, and I’m no expert, and from what I’m seeing and reading, even the experts don’t have definite answers but are merely making hypotheses – lots of them,’ he told Reuters in a WhatsApp message.
He said last week that footage taken on a GoPro camera could reveal the mystery surrounding their deaths.
Speaking to La Repubblica, the devastated husband said: ‘Monica usually had a GoPro when she went diving.
‘I don’t know if she had one the other day. If they find it, maybe from there we can understand what happened.
‘She would never have put our daughter’s life or that of others at risk… something must have happened down there.
‘Maybe one of them had trouble, maybe the oxygen tanks, I have no idea.’
Sommacal added that one of the divers on the expedition, Benedetti, was ‘meticulous’.
Police and medical personnel hold up a piece of fabric to shield the bodies of two Italian divers being transferred into an ambulance in Male City, the Maldives
A diver from Finland prepares to take part in a recovery operation for the remaining missing Italian scuba divers who died in an accident in underwater caves near Vaavu Atoll, Maldives
Screen grab shows an expert diver swimming through caves in search of the victims’ bodies in the Maldives
‘He checked everything: the tanks, the weather conditions. He’s not a fool,’ Sommacal said. ‘It must have been fate; they took every precaution possible.’
Authorities are probing whether the divers may have become disoriented due to bad weather and poor visibility on the day of the incident.
The divers were carrying 12-litre oxygen tanks, while Montefalcone was wearing a short diving suit – both unsuitable for the depths at which they were diving.
Investigators are also looking into whether the divers were carrying flashlights and using the ‘Ariadne’s Thread’ – a guide rope required for deep-sea cave expeditions.
Among the theories that have emerged, the possibility that the divers were sucked into a cave by a strong ‘freak’ current is being considered.
According to the president of the Italian Society of Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine, Alfonso Bolognini, the five divers might have been pulled into the crevice by a powerful current called the ‘Venturi effect’.
This phenomenon occurs when flowing water enters a narrow choke point, forcing it to speed up, which creates suction.
Italian authorities were yesterday arranging for the bodies of the divers to be repatriated so that they can carry out autopsies to determine the cause of death.
The Italian tour operator that managed the diving trip has denied authorising or being aware of the deep dive that violated local limits, its lawyer told newspaper Corriere della Sera on Saturday.
Orietta Stella, representing Albatros Top Boat, said the operator ‘did not know’ the group planned to descend beyond 98ft – the recreational diving limit in the Maldives.
That threshold requires special permission from Maldivian maritime authorities, and the tour operator ‘would have never allowed it’, she said.
Sergeant Major Mohamed Mahudhee, a diver for the Maldives coast guard, lost his life while searching for the bodies on Saturday
The Maldives, a nation of 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered some 500 miles across the equator in the Indian Ocean, is a luxury holiday destination popular with divers, who often stay at secluded resorts or on dive boats
The dive far exceeded what was planned for a scientific cruise focused on coral sampling at standard depths, Stella added.
The boat operator of the MV Duke of York, Abdul Muhsin Moosa, said the vessel did have permission for recreational depth of up to 98ft.
We are sharing these details with the government, as well,’ he said, adding that the divers were briefed on arrival at the boat about the Maldives’ recreational diving limits and that they are not allowed to go beyond 98ft.
The victims were experienced divers, but the equipment used appeared to be standard recreational gear rather than technical equipment suited for deep cave excursions, she said.
Cave diving is a highly technical and dangerous activity that requires specialised training, equipment and strict safety protocols.
Risks increase sharply in environments where divers cannot head straight up and at depth, particularly when conditions are poor.
Experts say it is easy to become disoriented or lost inside caves, particularly as sediment clouds can sharply reduce visibility.
Diving at 164ft also exceeds the maximum depth recommended for recreational divers by most major established scuba certifying agencies, with depths beyond 131ft considered technical diving and requiring specialised training and equipment.
Maldives Presidential Spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef said that the cave ‘is so deep that even divers with the best equipment do not try to approach’.
A Maldivian rescue diver, Mohamed Mahudhee, died on Saturday from decompression sickness while attempting to recover the bodies, highlighting the difficulties of diving at such a depth.
The Maldives, a nation of 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered some 500 miles across the equator in the Indian Ocean, is a luxury holiday destination popular with divers, who often stay at secluded resorts or on dive boats.
While local regulations allow dives to a maximum depth of 98ft, experienced professionals are known to go deeper.
Diving and water-sport-related accidents are relatively rare in the South Asian nation, although several fatal incidents have been reported in recent years.
This is a breaking news story, more to follow.Â
