Remaining bodies of missing tourists found in ‘shark cave’ after Maldives’ worst-ever diving disaster
The bodies of four remaining Italian divers were found Monday in the Maldives, four days after they went missing while exploring an underwater cave.
An elite team of three expert divers from Finland located the bodies of Monica Montefalcone, 52, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 20, Muriel Oddenino, 31, and Federico Gualtieri, 31, Italy’s Foreign Ministry said.
The group was found inside Thinwana Kandu cave, also known as “shark cave,” by the squad, which was assembled in 48 hours by the group Divers Alert Network Europe.
Their bodies were discovered in the third section of the cave — farthest from the entrance — according to Italy’s Foreign Ministry.
The body of diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, 44, was recovered Friday near the entrance to the same cave.
The causes of death for the five have not yet been established, Italy’s Foreign Ministry said.
Stormy weather meant a yellow warning was in place for passenger boats and fishermen at the time of the dive Thursday morning at Vaavu Atoll, some 60 miles south of the capital, Male, according to police.
A recovery mission to bring the bodies back to the surface will take place over the next few days, authorities said.
“Further dives [are] to be carried out in the coming days to recover the bodies,” Mohamed Hossain Shareef, a Maldivian government spokesperson, told BBC News.
The elite diving trio, comprised of Sami Paakkarinen, Jenni Westerlund and Patrik Grönqvist, arrived in the Indian Ocean nation on Sunday to help local authorities with the search.
The divers, who previously took part in the rescue of a Thai soccer team in 2018, were called in after local authorities were unable to provide the necessary equipment to reach the depths required to enter the caves.
On Saturday, a Maldivian search diver, Sgt. Major Mohamed Mahudhee, became the sixth victim of the Maldives’ worst-ever diving disaster when he died in his attempts to locate the missing tourists.
A further 20 Italian tourists were on board the Duke of York yacht when it began its doomed mission to the dive site on Thursday.
They have all returned to Italy following the terrifying ordeal.
Authorities are still looking into the circumstances behind the disaster.
The diving group, mostly from the University of Genoa, had permission as part of their research mission to study the coral reefs, including deep dives, but their proposal made no mention of entering the cave, Shareef said.
Recreational scuba divers in the country are only allowed to dive to depths of up to 100 feet, he previously said.
It isn’t clear why the group of Italian divers went into a cave almost twice as deep.
