Elite divers join dangerous mission to recover Italians lost in Maldives cave tragedy
Thomas Bamford
Featured Image Credit: (Photo by Linh Pham/Getty Images)
The race to recover the bodies of four Italian divers still trapped inside an underwater cave in the Maldives has entered a new and desperate phase, with some of the world's most elite cave divers now on the ground.
Three Finnish divers from the Divers Alert Network, a global scuba safety organisation, touched down in the Maldives on Sunday and were immediately en route to meet the local coast guard team to devise a new recovery strategy.
A fourth expert is expected to join them before the end of the day, along with specialist equipment being flown in from both Australia and the United Kingdom.
"They were recommended by Italy and have completed deep dives and cave dives around the world," Maldives chief government spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef told CNN.
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Among those lending expertise is John Volanthen, a British Cave Rescue Council diving officer who played a central role in the 2018 Thai youth soccer team cave rescue, one of the most celebrated and complex underwater rescue operations in history.
Volanthen told CNN that the cave's depth and silt is what is "unquestionably hampering" recovery efforts.
"It's essentially a very long way into the cave and normally, cave divers would lay a guideline to find their way out," he said.
"That's potentially what happened with the missing party."
The four divers still unaccounted for are Monica Montefalcone, an associate professor of ecology at the University of Genoa; her daughter Giorgia Sommacal; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri; and researcher Muriel Oddenino.
The body of diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti was found at the mouth of the cave, leading authorities to believe the other four remain inside.
The recovery effort has already come at a devastating cost. On Saturday, Sergeant Mohamed Mahudhee, 43, described by Shareef as "one of the most senior divers" in the Maldives, died during a second recovery mission into the cave. He was returning to the surface when his diving partner realised something was wrong.
The rest of the team jumped in immediately but were unable to save him. He is believed to have died from decompression complications during ascent. He was laid to rest in a full military honours ceremony in Malé, attended by thousands including President Mohamed Muizzu, foreign ambassadors and military officials.
The conditions inside the cave are described as extraordinarily dangerous. The cave descends to 70 metres at its deepest point, roughly the height of a 20-storey building, and stretches 200 metres in length, with unpredictable strong currents, narrow passageways leading to a vast chamber, and pitch-black darkness throughout. Each rescue dive is limited to around three hours due to oxygen and decompression requirements alone.
The dive itself is now under criminal investigation. Maldivian law prohibits recreational and commercial diving beyond 30 metres without special permission, yet the cave's mouth sits at nearly 50 metres.
The vessel's licence has been suspended pending the outcome of the probe.
The British Cave Rescue Council and the Divers Alert Network have been approached for comment.