AN ELITE task force of top divers are racing against the clock to find the bodies of four Italians who drowned in “treacherous” caves in the Maldives.
Five scuba divers on a university research trip went missing on Thursday morning – with only one body recovered so far.
The divers were led by the highly-experienced diver and renowned marine biologist Monica Montefalcone and boat captain Gianluca Benedetti.
They were joined by Monica’s daughter Giorgia Sommacal, researcher Muriel Oddenino, and marine biologist Federico Gualtieri.
Benedetti’s body is the only one to be recovered – found with an empty oxygen tank on Thursday evening, around six hours after the alarm was first raised.
Three Finnish divers – Sami Paakkarinen, Jenni Westerlund, and Patrik Grönqvist – have now arrived in the paradise archipelago to help get the high-risk recovery mission over the line, with a new search set to resume on Monday.
The elite unit, which was assembled in 48 hours and dispatched by DAN Europe – a diving safety organisation – will be searching the Alimatha cave complex near Vaavu Atoll.
Paakkarinen, who has been cave diving since 2004, and Grönqvist gained international renown for their role in recovering surviving divers in the 2014 Plura incident in Norway.
The divers have worked on some of the world’s most difficult missions.
Laura Marroni, CEO of the European diving network, told La Stampa: “We’ll bring them back. We can’t leave them at the mercy of the sharks. We need experts here.”
Marroni stressed that speed was vital as the four missing divers have been up to 200ft underwater for nearly four days now.
She said: “In warm waters, even if we don’t know exactly what fauna is in the cave, we can’t rule out the risk of predators like sharks or environmental impacts.
“During past recoveries, the worst happened. So every hour that passes is crucial.”
The death of a Maldivian military rescue diver on Saturday highlighted the mission’s extreme danger – with the total death toll rising to six.
The team of expert European divers arrived in Malé, the Maldives capital, on Sunday – with the aim of assisting the search teams.
Marroni said: “We offered our decades of experience and selected the best and most experienced divers immediately available: the Finnish team.
“Over the past two days, one of our highest priorities has been to support these operations with the best people, the right equipment, and the strongest possible coordination.
“Our team is now on site and preparing for tomorrow’s dive. From this moment, their focus must be entirely on the mission ahead.”
The elite trio can dive to depths of nearly 500ft, giving them wiggle room to search the difficult cave complex.
“We are talking about people among the most competent in the world for these operations,” Marroni added.
They will spend the coming hours planning for an “extremely complex and high-risk operation”.
Risks such as poor visibility caused by rising sediment, as well as a narrow two to three metre cave corridor, still pose risks for the experts.
Adding to the difficulty, there is a lack of technical equipment available on site.
Marroni said: “The Maldives aren’t known for deep-sea diving or cave diving, so there’s a lack of training or organization for this type of recovery.”
DAN Europe said it has “always stood alongside the international diving community, providing medical assistance, emergency coordination, and operational support in the event of diving accidents”.
Meanwhile, the lawyer for Albatros Top Boat, the Italian tour operator who sold the high-end diving cruise package, is flying to the Maldives.
Orietta Stella, an experienced diver herself, said: “I want to understand what happened to these poor people and I want to follow the recovery of their bodies.”
It has since been revealed that the Duke of York yacht, from which they launched the expedition, did not have a permit allowing dives of more than 100ft.
Albatros Top Boat had its license suspended in the wake of the tragedy and insisted it did not authorise a dive of that depth.
A former military diver claimed that “rules were broken” in the high-risk cave – questioning why the group were allowed on the mission in the first place.
Shafraz Naeem, a veteran of the Maldives National Defence Force, said: “The authorities have confirmed that the operator exceeded the Maldives’ recreational depth limit of 30 metres and conducted the dives without the necessary permits.
“Everyone knows the rules were broken; they didn’t even have a permit to conduct research at those depths.”
The ex-diver is very familiar with the caves and described the complex series of tunnels.
The entrance to the cave is between 180 to 190ft, nearly double what the permit allowed, and extends down to 330ft.
It forks into different tunnels, and soon becomes pitch-black.
Naeem said: “Even the most experienced divers can face considerable challenges in such environments.”
He believes that the Italian team died due to a combination of factors and stressed that just one “unexpected event can quickly turn into tragedy” at those depths.
