The five Italian divers who drowned in the Maldives last Thursday may have taken a wrong turn and panicked when in an underwater cave with no clear way out, according to the elite squad sent in to retrieve their bodies.
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 165 feet.
The body of their diving instructor, Gianluca Benedetti, 44, was found near the entrance to the same chamber.
The cave system includes a first chamber connected to a second by a corridor about 100 feet long and 10 feet wide, reported Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
Once in the second chamber, the entrance to the corridor is hidden by a sandbank, and just above that is the entrance to the third chamber, which is a dead end.
The group of Italians appears to have entered the third chamber by mistake and panicked when they realized there was no way out before running out of oxygen, according to the group of Finnish divers brought in by the research organization DAN Europe, to find them.
“There was no way out,” Laura Marroni, CEO of DAN Europe, told La Repubblica.
If the group took a wrong turn, “it would have been very complex to return, especially with the little supply of air,” Marroni added.
The group was using standard, 12-liter oxygen cylinders, not suited to depths of below 100 feet, and would have had little time to turn around.
“We’re talking about 10 minutes, maybe even less,” said Marroni.
“Realizing that the road is not right, and having little air maybe after backing down, it terrifies [you],” she added.
“Then you breathe quickly and the air goes down.”
All five Italians were experienced divers, and the exact reasons they went on such a deep dive without appropriate equipment remains under investigation.
The elite Finnish divers recovered technical equipment, including GoPro cameras worn by some of the group, which it is hoped will give them a better understanding of the worst diving tragedy in the history of the Maldives.
The last two bodies were recovered on Wednesday, bringing the mission to an end.
A sixth victim, military diver Sgt. Major Mohamed Mahudhee, died from underwater compression sickness on Saturday when he tried to find the bodies.
Despite being “one of the best” divers in the Maldivian National Defense Force, he was not trained for the fatal mission, according to his military mentor, Shafraz Naeem.
