An elite team of Finnish divers on Tuesday recovered the bodies of two of the four Italian tourists who died in an underwater cave in the Maldives.
The bodies were located on Monday after recovery operations restarted following the death of a military diver — and they were found lying at a depth of around 200 feet.
Monica Montefalcone, 52, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 20, Muriel Oddenino, 31, and Federico Gualtieri, 31 had been missing since they vanished while exploring the underwater cave last Thursday.
Officials have not yet identified the remains which were recovered, and divers plan to recover the two other bodies Wednesday.
Ahmed Shaam, the Maldives government spokesperson, said the bodies were found “pretty much together” by the elite squad which was assembled in 48 hours by the group Divers Alert Network Europe.
“As was previously thought, the four bodies were found inside the cave, not only inside the cave, but well inside the cave into the third segment of the cave, which is the largest part,” he said.
The Divers’ Alert Network Europe, which deployed the three Finnish divers, said on its website that they are technical and cave divers with international experience in search and recovery missions, including operations in “deep overhead environments, confined spaces and high-risk scenarios.”
The team used advanced technical systems, including closed-circuit rebreathers, a system that recycles exhaled breathing gas and removes carbon dioxide through a chemical scrubber, allowing for “significantly longer dives,” the organization said.
The body of diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, 44, was recovered on Friday near the entrance to the same cave.
Maldivian Coast Guard divers tried to recover the bodies on Saturday but the mission was suspended after Sgt. Major Mohamed Mahudhee, a member of the Maldivian National Defense Force, died from underwater decompression sickness.
Mahudhee, 44, was part of a team of eight divers tasked with trying to find the bodies. They had cleared two of the three chambers within the cave – around 200-feet deep – but he failed to reappear.
With Post wires.
