Divers killed in Maldives cave may have taken wrong tunnel, says rescue company chief: “There's no way out”

Italian divers who died in the Maldives may have taken the wrong tunnel and died in the cave, the head of the company that found their bodies said on Thursday.

Finnish divers working for Dan Europe found their bodies in a dead-end passageway inside the cave, about 50 meters (165 feet) down in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

“The bodies were found together in the area of ​​the cave. Based on the layout of the cave, it is possible that they were lost,” said company director Laura Marroni to AFP.

I Italian divers identified as Monica Montefalcone, associate professor of ecology at the University of Genoa; his daughter Giorgia Sommacal; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri; researcher Muriel Oddenino; and diving coach Gianluca Benedetti. Maldivian the military diver also died while searching for missing Italians.

The alarm was raised last Thursday after they failed to return from the water.

The cave, an underwater system that stretches for hundreds of meters through many chambers and internal tunnels, begins with the first large, bright cave with a sandy floor.

This is where the director's body was found, in a recovery operation carried out by the Maldivian authorities.

At the end of this cave is a cave, which is about 30 meters long and 3 meters wide, and leads to the second chamber of the cave.

The corridor ends at a sand ledge, which is easy to get into another room, but “can reduce visibility” when you try to get out again, Marroni said.

“The divers, they couldn't find the exit tunnel, they found themselves in the passage on the left where there could have been a way out, but it was underground,” he said.

“There was no way out of there,” Marroni was quoted by la Repubblica as saying.

The death corridor is where the other four bodies were found.

According to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 25 Italian tourists were on board the “Duke of York”, including five divers who died.

“Limited air supply”

“Considering they had very little air so they were only on the ground for a few minutes, there probably wasn't even time for them to make a lot of efforts to find a proper exit,” Marroni said.

The effort of the Maldivian National Defense Force (MNDF) to bring them back was cut short after one of their rescuers died on Saturday due to the problems of the economic collapse, and a team from Finland was called.

It is made up of three divers: one is tasked with retrieving bodies, the second has active safety support, and the third documents the recovery and dive site.

The divers were “highly trained” and “conducted a thorough investigation with us, and developed a diving plan, considering that no one knew the cave very well,” Marroni said.

“This type of operation always involves great responsibility, emotional stress, and a strong desire to return the bodies to their families,” she said.

The team recovered the bodies on Tuesday and Wednesday.

One of the divers, Patrik Gronqvist, 54, told AFP by phone that they “started to see traces on the ground, as if there was some work,” which led them to find all four bodies in a pitch black hole.

“The bodies were here and there,” he said, about two to three meters away.

“Three were on the ground (in the cave) and one on the roof.”

Gronqvist said the campaign would not have been as “technically challenging” as he had been involved in.

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

Divers were returning to the cave on Thursday to remove directional lines and work equipment used within the cave system during recovery efforts.

“Like a crime scene, everything is documented, stored, and cleaned up,” Marroni said.

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

Divers exceed recommended limits

Authorities in the Maldives are investigating how the Italians were allowed to go down to a depth of 60 meters when the Indian Ocean country allows tourists a depth of 30 meters.

Cave diving is a highly technical and dangerous activity that requires special training, equipment and strict safety rules. Dangers are greatest in areas where divers cannot go straight up and deep, especially when conditions are poor. Experts say it's easy to get confused or lost inside the caves, especially since clouds of sediment can greatly reduce visibility.

Local officials called the incident the worst single diving accident in the history of the Maldives, a country of 1,192 small coral islands scattered about 500 kilometers across the equator in the Indian Ocean.

Accidents related to diving and water sports appear to be rare in the South Asian nation, although several fatal incidents have been reported in recent years.

A female British tourist died while diving in December, and her distraught 71-year-old husband died a few days later after falling ill.

A 26-year-old Japanese tourist went missing after a diving trip near the capital in June.

Local media reports say that at least 112 tourists have died in sea-related incidents in the past six years, and 42 of them were victims of diving or water skiing accidents.