An elite squad of Finnish divers on Wednesday recovered the final two bodies of the Italian tourists who were trapped 200 feet deep in a shark-infested underwater cave in the Maldives, ending the idyllic paradise’s deadliest diving tragedy.
Divers recovered the bodies of Giorgia Sommacal, 22, and researcher Muriel Oddenino, 31, from the Vaavu Atoll cave — six days after their disappearance, sources at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the ANSA News Agency.
The daring operation got underway just before 11 a.m. local time and the first body was on a rescue boat within an hour, according to La Repubblica.
Minutes later, the second body was aboard the support vessel. It is unknown who was recovered first.
Rescuers recovered the bodies during a relay operation.
The dive team hurled a rope attached to a buoy into the water. Then, they plunged to depths of 154 feet and attached a piece of the rope to the cave’s entrance.
The divers then entered the cave and retrieved the bodies.
A Maldivian navy team waited at 98 feet, received the bodies, and then passed them to another group at 10 feet.
They checked that the bodies were properly secured in bags before loading them onto a boat.
Autopsies have not yet been carried out on the bodies, but it’s likely the remains will be transported to a morgue in the Maldives capital, Male.
On Tuesday, the diving squad, from Finland, recovered the remains of University of Genoa ecology teacher Monica Montefalcone, 52, and researcher Federico Gualtieri, 31.
Officials were seen shielding the bodies from public view while they were being transferred from a police boat to an ambulance at Male Harbour.
The divers faced a race against time amid fears the bodies could be consumed by sharks – and they used advanced technical systems, including closed-circuit rebreathers, a system that recycles exhaled breathing gas and removes carbon dioxide through a chemical scrubber, which allows for “significantly longer dives,” a spokesperson for the Divers’ Alert Network Europe said.
The bodies were found within the cave’s third segment on Monday — after recovery operations restarted following the death of a military diver.
It has since emerged that Montefalcone, Sommacal’s mom, was wearing a wetsuit that was more suitable for recreational dives, as opposed to deep sea expeditions, Maldivian sources told La Repubblica.
But she could’ve decided to wear the shorter suit given the warm water temperatures in the idyllic paradise.
Last week, the remains of diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, 44, were recovered on Friday near the cave’s entrance.
The quintet was among 25 Italian tourists on board the Duke of York boat before they vanished during the expedition.
The dive, which took place near the island of Alimathaa, got underway at 11 a.m. last Thursday and concerns grew when the divers failed to return an hour later.
It sparked a range of theories on what may have led to their disappearance and subsequent deaths.
Pulmonologist Claudio Micheletto suggested oxygen toxicity — in which divers inhale too high a concentration of oxygen that it becomes fatal — may have been a contributing factor.
“Death from oxygen toxicity, or hyperoxia, is one of the most dramatic deaths that can occur during a dive — a horrible end,” the expert told the Italian outlet Adnkronos.
Alfonso Bolognini, president of the Italian Society of Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine, speculated on how the conditions underwater could cause panic and lead to fatal mistakes.
“Inside a cave at a depth of 50 meters, all it takes is a problem for a diver or a panic attack for a diver,” he told the outlet.
The divers plunged beyond the recreational diving limit of 98 feet.
The tour operator who managed the trip was reportedly unaware the quintet plunged to such depths.
They “would have never allowed it,” Orietta Stella, an Albatros Top Boat representative, said.
The Duke of York’s operator has said tourists were told about the recreational diving rules.
