Divers on Tuesday recovered the bodies of two of the 4 remaining Italians who died deep inside an underwater cave in an atoll within the Maldives last week, a spokesperson for the Indian Ocean nation said, while describing “very difficult” conditions like poor visibility and robust currents.
The bodies were situated on Monday as searches resumed after a suspension following the death of an area military diver during a deadly retrieval attempt. The bodies were at a depth of around 60 meters (200 feet), twice as deep because the legal depth for recreational diving within the island nation.
Five Italian divers went missing on Thursday. The body of the Italian diving instructor was recovered earlier outside the cave. The 2 remaining bodies are expected to be recovered on Wednesday.
The Maldives government has said Finnish divers doing the recovery work spotted the bodies within the cave’s innermost area. Government spokesperson Ahmed Shaam said the 4 bodies were found “just about together.”
The five Italians had been exploring a cave in Vaavu Atoll. Initial teams had dived to discover and mark the doorway system where they disappeared.
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The cave has been dived up to now by local experts and foreign divers, presidential spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef told The Associated Press.
While the divers had a permit, authorities didn’t know from their proposal the precise location of the cave they were exploring, and at the least two of the dead weren’t on the list of researchers that had been submitted, “so we didn’t know they were a part of the expedition,” Shareef said.
“Actually a really difficult dive, you already know,” he added. “Primary, due to depth, number two, due to actual terrain, because that specific channel has strong currents, strong downdrafts down toward, and the conditions down there, the visibility, for instance, when you enter the cave could be almost zero.”
He said the weather was difficult, with an alert having been issued, and investigators must determine whether the divers took adequate precautions.
The Divers’ Alert Network Europe, which deployed the Finnish divers, described them as technical and cave divers with experience in search and recovery missions, including operations in “deep overhead environments, confined spaces and high-risk scenarios.”
The team is using closed-circuit rebreathers, a system that recycles exhaled respiratory gas and removes carbon dioxide through a chemical scrubber, allowing for “significantly longer dives,” the organization said.
Shareef said the Maldives has a robust fame and infrastructure for protected diving and called the incident unlucky and tragic, but noted the difference between this type of technical diving and the recreational kind that many visitors enjoy.
The reason for death of the Maldivian military diver was still under investigation, but colleagues have suggested he can have died from nitrogen narcosis or decompression at depth.
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