Final two bodies of missing Italians recovered from inside Maldives cave

Sarah Rainsford,In RomReuters A diver from Finland takes part in a recovery operation for four missing Italian scuba divers who died in an accident in underwater caves near Vaavu Atoll, Maldivese

Reuters

A team of specialist Finnish divers were able to retrieve the two bodies on Tuesday

The remaining two bodies of Italian nationals who drowned in last week’s scuba diving accident in the Maldives have been recovered, local officials say.

Government spokesman Mohamed Hossain Shareef told the BBC they would be flown to the capital Malé for repatriation to Italy. The foreign ministry in Rome confirmed the bodies had been brought to the surface.

They were among five Italians who died at an underwater cave on Thursday. The other three bodies had already been recovered.

A Maldivian rescue diver also died during a search operation on Saturday.

It is said to be the worst diving accident in the tiny Indian Ocean nation, a popular tourist destination because of its coral islands.

It is hoped that discovering the bodies will provide clues as to the cause of the accident.

The five divers have been named as Monica Montefalcone, associate professor of ecology at Genoa University, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, a student at Genoa, recent graduate Federico Gualtieri, research fellow Muriel Oddenino, and boat operations manager and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti.

Instagram/University of Genoa/Albatros Top Boat Two women and a man on the right - a composite image of three of the victims of a diving tragedy in ItalyInstagram/University of Genoa/Albatros Top Boat
Among the five who died were Giorgia Sommacal (L), her mother Monica Montefalcone (C) and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti

Facebook A woman in a hat and sunglasses beside a man in shorts who is standing on a rockFacebook
Muriel Oddenino (L) and Federico Gualtieri were also part of the group

The first body – named by Italian media as Benedetti – was recovered shortly after Thursday’s accident near Vaavu atoll.

The four remaining divers were eventually found by Finnish divers on Monday in the chamber of the cave furthest from the entrance. Known locally as “shark cave”, it is up to 60m (197 ft) deep.

Two bodies were recovered on Tuesday, and the final two on Wednesday.

Italy’s Ansa news agency reported that Wednesday’s operation lasted about three hours. It said advanced equipment – including underwater scooters – was used by the Finnish divers.

The recovery operation was described as complex because of the depth of the cave and the lack of space and visibility. The entrance to the cave lies at a depth of 47m, but the various chambers are at varying depths.

The Finnish divers were working with local police and coastguard. Officials said on Tuesday that while the specialist team brought the bodies to a depth of 30m, the coastguard divers had taken over the operation from that point.

Maldivian authorities are continuing their investigation into what went wrong during last Thursday’s dive.

The weather at the time of the dive was described as rough and a yellow warning had been issued for passenger boats and fishermen.

Four of the divers were affiliated with the University of Genoa, which told the BBC that it did not give approval for any kind of deep-sea dive as part of their scientific research.

“The requests submitted to the Maldivian authorities… were evidently made outside the scope of the mission authorised by the university,” a spokesperson said. The dive was carried out “in a personal capacity”, the spokesperson added, and not part of the research.

The university has said that it had suspended authorisation for any dives for scientific purposes – regardless of their depth – in March 2024, in accordance with a ministerial decree from that month giving guidelines for underwater dives.

The statement said the university is currently developing an internal protocol to govern its procedures, in compliance with those regulations.

A Maldivian government spokesperson told the BBC that the team had a permit to dive to a depth of 50m but had not mentioned the cave in their proposal.

Sommacal’s father Carlo has been highly critical of the university’s statement that the cave dive led by his wife was unauthorised.

“Monica [Montefalcone], according to many, is the person who has the most scientific literature on those corals in the world,” he told La Repubblica newspaper. “There are hundreds of graduate students writing theses on the Maldives using the data they gather together with Monica, or that Monica gathered. And no one knew anything? It makes me laugh.”