Divers probably took wrong turn to end up in dead-end cave
Nick Squires
Rome: Investigators believe the five Italian divers who died in a deep undersea cave in the Maldives lost their way and ended up in a dead end where they ran out of air.
It is believed that instead of swimming through the passage to the open sea, the divers turned the wrong way and entered a pitch black cave with no exit.
They may have missed the correct exit because their fins churned up the sandy bottom of the cave system, clouding the water and making it difficult to see the correct route.
The coral cave system they discovered was around 60 meters deep, meaning there would be little margin for error.
Experts believe that only 10 to 12 minutes of air are likely available to explore the caves. Once they were stuck in a dead end, panic would set in and quickly end.
The divers disappeared last week after going diving off the coast of Alimathaa island, located in the atoll called Vaavu, south of Malé, the capital of the Maldives.
Their bodies were recovered in a highly technical operation carried out by three expert divers flown in from Finland earlier in the week.
The Italians got off their dive boats, entered the first large underwater cave, and then swam through a 30-meter-long passage to a second cave.
There they encountered problems. Instead of exploring for a few minutes and retracing their route, they entered a third, smaller cave with no exit. Finnish divers found four bodies there.
The fifth body of diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti was found in the first, larger cave. He had either decided to wait there while the others explored the cave system, or had accompanied them along the way and somehow managed to find his way to safety almost alone.
Other divers included Monica Montefalcone, 51, a professor of marine biology at the University of Genoa, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 23, a biomedical engineering student, and two young marine biology researchers Muriel Oddenino and Federico Gualtieri.
“They probably lost their bearings in the cave and ran out of air,” Laura Marroni, CEO of Divers Alert Network Europe, told London. Telegram.
Behind the mission to recover the divers’ bodies was the nonprofit organization that promotes diving safety through research and education. The group posted footage on social media on Friday that it said was shot inside the cave.
“There is sand on the floor of the cave, especially in the second chamber. If you mix it with your flippers, it forms a kind of cloud that worsens visibility. Maybe that’s why they couldn’t see the exit. But we don’t know that right now,” Marroni said.
“If you get lost in such a situation, you won’t have much time. By diving at that depth with a 12-liter tank, you can only get 10-12 minutes of air.
“It depends on how long it takes them to get down there. And it can also depend on the person, how hard they’re breathing. But even a small mistake can lead to a big problem.”
Mohameed Hussain Shareef, a Maldivian government official, described conditions in the cave system as “challenging” due to difficult terrain and poor visibility.
By analyzing the dive computers worn by the Italians on their wrists, the researchers will learn about their diving profiles, that is, how much time they spent at different depths.
The loss of five Italians was compounded by the second tragedy last Saturday, when a rescue diver from the Maldivian armed forces died of decompression complications or nitrogen narcosis after descending into the cave system.
The Finnish team was then called and retrieved the bodies on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Rescuers used closed-circuit breathing apparatus, a system that recycles exhaled breathing gas and removes carbon dioxide through a chemical scavenger, allowing divers to stay underwater much longer.
Patrik Gronqvist, 54, a Finnish diver, said that three of the four bodies found in the dead-end cave were floating on the sea bed and one was floating on the roof.
He told the AFP news agency that the mission was not as “technically challenging” as previous operations in which he had participated, but “This operation was very harrowing… I will never forget it.”
Maldivian authorities are investigating whether the Italians had permission to dive so deep and enter the cave system. The limit for recreational diving is 30 meters. The operating license of the diving boat where the five victims stayed was revoked.
