News Desk
MALE’ — The recovery operation for five Italian divers who died inside an underwater cave near Alimatha island in Vaavu Atoll has been completed, with the bodies of the last two recovered today.
The five went missing on 14 May after entering a cave system at around 60 metres depth. A distress call reached the MNDF and Maldives Police Service at 1.45pm that day. The first body, that of Gianluca Benedetti, 44, was recovered from near the cave entrance at 6.13pm the same evening.
The MNDF Coast Guard conducted recovery operations on Friday and Saturday before suspending the effort following the death of Staff Sergeant Mohamed Mahdi, who suffered decompression sickness during the search and died while receiving treatment at ADK Hospital in Male’. The operation resumed after three Finnish cave diving specialists arrived at the request of the Italian government, equipped with specialist technical equipment. Two bodies were recovered on Monday. The remaining two were brought out today.
Government spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef said the recovery operation was led by the Finnish team and assisted by two local companies who volunteered their support. The bodies are being brought to Male’ and will be taken to the morgue. Discussions on repatriating the remains to Italy are under way.
The five who died were Monica Montefalcone, 51, a professor at the University of Genoa; her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 20, a university student; Muriel Oddenino, 31, a researcher; Federico Gualtieri, 31, a researcher; and Gianluca Benedetti, 44, a diving instructor.
The spokesman revealed that two of the five tourists were not listed on the research proposal submitted to authorities. The government was not aware they were part of the group, he said. The group had been issued a dive permit, but the spokesman said the research proposal contained gaps and critically, the group had not informed the government that they intended to study an underwater cave.
The Maldives government and the Italian government are both conducting investigations into the incident. The operating licence of the MV Duke of York, the safari vessel that took the group diving, has been suspended indefinitely.
