A Maldives cave diving instructor could have ‘intentionally swam away’ from a tourist group where six people have died as they entered ‘pitch black cave’.
Five Italians on a research trip were killed during a dive into the 160 ft deep ‘shark cave’ within the Devana Kandu cave system last week.
The bodies of ecology professor Monica Montefalcone, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, researcher Muriel Oddenino, and marine biologist Federico Gualtieri were discovered yesterday.
They were accompanied by diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, whose body was found last week.
Two bodies of those found yesterday have now been dropped at the surface, with the opposite two expected to be recovered tomorrow in a ‘technically complex operation’.
In total six people have been killed as a part of the cave dive, with Maldivian military rescue diver Mohamed Mahudhee dying from decompression illness on Saturday during a recovery mission.
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The group was on a research trip about soft corals on Thursday morning when the group is believed to have died around 160 ft deep.
That they had launched the expedition from the Duke of York yacht, which didn’t have a permit allowing dives of greater than 100 ft.
Monica’s husband and pop of Giorgia Carlo Sommacal told Italian media his wife ‘was among the best divers on this planet’ and would never put his daughter in danger.
He said she had carried out about 5,000 dives and was ‘never reckless’.
Shafraz Naeem, a Maldivian diving veteran who has explored the Devana Kandu cave system over 30 times, said he believes ‘rules were broken’ throughout the dive.
He said light only reaches the primary chamber and is pitch black beyond it, adding he believes the trainer ‘intentionally swam away’.
He told the Each day Mail: ‘It’s incredibly dangerous to conduct dives at these depths on compressed air.
‘Perhaps he legged it up before he ran out of air. The remainder of the group died in that third chamber and Benedetti died within the passageway attempting to get out.’
Gianluca’s body was the primary to be recovered from near the mouth of the Thinwana Kandu cave on Thursday.
Meanwhile the opposite bodies lie much deeper within the cave system.
The Italian tour operator that managed the diving trip has denied authorising or knowing concerning the group’s deep dive, which exceeded local limits, its lawyer told Italian local publication Corriere della Sera.
An investigation is underway to ascertain the reason behind death.
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