THE mysterious Maldives tragedy could be explained by a “sand wall illusion” theory, the Finnish divers who recovered the bodies believe.
Five Italian tourists were killed while exploring a shark-infested cave on Thursday – before underwater experts were called in to find and retrieve their remains.
The disaster has been shrouded in mystery – with speculation rife on why the group failed to resurface from the doomed 160ft-deep expedition.
But Sami Paakkarinen, Jenni Westerlund and Patrik Grönqvist – who have been hailed for locating the bodies – believe they may have the answer.
The Italians could have taken the wrong turn while trying to navigate out of Thinwana Kandu cave, the pro-divers working under research organisation Dan Europe have suggested.
The tragic tourists include Monica Montefalcone, a marine biology professor; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal; two young researchers, Federico Gualtieri and Muriel Oddenino; and their guide Gianluca Benedetti.
Monica, her daughter and the two researchers were found in a corridor with a dead end nearby, La Repubblica reported.
Benedetti was found near the mouth of “shark cave” in the Vaavu Atoll on Thursday before the other four bodies were located.
But commenting on the location where four of the bodies were found, Dan Europe CEO Laura Marroni said: “There was no way out from there.”
The Finnish divers reportedly said the cave starts with a very large and bright cavern that features a sandy floor.
The end of this section contains a corridor which has a small amount of light but good visibility when artificial lamps are used.
The corridor is about 30 metres long and three metres across.
It leads to a second chamber of the cave – a large, round space with no natural light.
And there is reportedly a sand bank between the corridor and the second room.
It would have been easy for the divers to get into the second chamber without seeing the sand bank, the expert Finns say.
But when the group turned around, the bank would have looked very much like a wall, according to the outlet.
This sand wall could have hidden the original exit out of the second room.
To the left of the sand bank, there is reportedly another corridor that is only a few metres long and eventually leads to a dead-end.
The four Italians were found inside this small chamber “as if they had mistaken it for the right one”, according to the newspaper.
Marroni said it would have been “very difficult to return, especially with the limited air supply” if they took that turn by accident.
Since the divers are understood to have been using standard tanks, they would have had very little time to visit the second cave at such a depth, Marroni added.
She said: “We’re talking about 10 minutes, maybe even less.
“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.”
Local authorities are probing how the Italians were allowed to descend nearly 200ft below the surface – as the Maldives‘ maximum diving depth is 98ft for tourists.
GoPro cameras belonging to the divers have also been found which are hoped to help officials piece together their final moments.
The first autopsies are now also taking place to aid with the investigations.
A four-word message scrawled in chalk helped kickstart the recovery mission for the Italian divers, it has emerged.
After first locating the four bodies trapped inside a crevice in the complex cave, the Finns returned to the surface with a single message to relay: “We found all four.”
Six people died due to the doomed underwater trip in total including a member of the Maldives rescue team helping find the bodies.
Retrieving the Italians involved hours of involved technical briefings, detailed studies of cave maps, decompression planning and safety talks.
On Tuesday, the bodies of Monica and university researcher Federico were recovered from the cave by the Finnish divers.
Giorgia – the 22-year-old daughter of Monica – and Muriel , 31, were then brought back to land a day later.
