Italian divers in Maldives may have got lost in underwater cave: Recovery firm

ROME – Five Italians killed in a Maldives diving incident may have taken the wrong tunnel on their way out of an underwater cave, the head of the company that recovered their bodies said on May 21.

Finnish divers working for Dan Europe found their bodies in a corridor with a dead end inside the cave complex, some 50m down in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

“The bodies were found together in an area of the cave. Based on the cave’s layout, they may have got lost,” the company’s CEO Laura Marroni told AFP news agency.

The Italian divers included a marine biology professor with many years of experience, her daughter, two young researchers and their Maldives-based guide.

The alarm was sounded on May 14 after they failed to return from a dive.

The cave, an underwater system which extends for hundreds of metres through multiple chambers and internal passages, begins with a large, bright cavern with a sandy bottom.

That is where the guide’s body was found in an earlier recovery operation by Maldivian authorities.

At the end of this cavern is a corridor, which is almost 30m long and 3m across, and which leads to a second chamber of the cave.

The corridor ends in a sandbank, which is easy to get over into a second chamber, but “which could limit visibility” when attempting to leave again, Ms Marroni said.

“The divers, unable to find the exit corridor, found themselves in a corridor to the left of what would have been the exit, which, however, was a dead end,” she said.

The dead-end corridor is where the four other bodies were found.

‘Limited air supply’

Ms Marroni said: “Considering that they had a very limited air supply and therefore only a few minutes at the bottom, there probably wasn’t even time for them to make numerous attempts to find the correct exit.”

An attempt by the Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF) to recover them was called off after one of its rescuers died on May 16 from decompression complications, and the Finnish team was called in.

It 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”, Ms 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 May 19 and 20.

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.”

Mr Gronqvist said the mission had not been as “technically challenging” as previous operations he has been involved in.

“But this operation was very sad... I will never forget it,” he said.

The rescue divers were returning to the cave on May 21 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,” Ms Marroni said.

The photos and videos taken by the Finnish recovery team will be shared with the Maldivian authorities, who are investigating how the Italians were allowed to descend to a depth of 60m.

The Indian Ocean country permits a maximum depth of 30m for tourists.

The divers were using standard tanks, meaning that, at that depth, they had very little time to visit the second cave, Ms Marroni said.

“We’re talking about 10 minutes, maybe even less,” she said.

“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.” AFP