Five Italian divers died on a research trip within the Maldives last week, after they entered a 160 ft deep ‘shark cave’ in a submerged cave system within the Vaavu Atoll.
The bodies of ecology professor Monica Montefalcone, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, researcher Muriel Oddenino, and marine biologist Federico Gualtieri have all been retrieved after extensive search efforts.
Their diving instructor, Gianluca Benedetti’s body was found last week.
Maldivian military rescue diver Mohamed Mahudhee also sadly died on Saturday from decompression illness during a recovery mission.
Local authorities are calling it the most important diving accident within the country’s history.
Now, a video from contained in the same cave has been shared by Vladimir Tochilov, a technical cave instructor.
Enroll for all of the most recent stories
Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
The footage, which dates back to 2014, shows the fact of the depths. It includes the cave being entirely pitch black and requiring the usage of torches, and the small crevices that the divers needed to navigate through.
CNN shared the video, together with a clip of Vladimir explaining the hazards of the cave.
‘It’s difficult since it is positioned deep,’ he said.
‘And this cave is accessible just for technical cave divers who’ve the suitable preparation, the suitable experience and who’re planning appropriately to dive this cave.’
Apparently, the name of the cave is ‘Dhevana Kandu.’ Though not officially, its name was deliberately modified by those specialist divers to forestall untrained or recreational divers from attempting to enter the hazardous cavern.
Vladimir continued: ‘There shouldn’t be any unprepared divers, and we even modified the name to be able to save the inexperienced divers from the temptation to are available in and have a look.’
Local authorities say the dive appears to have exceeded the legal depth limit for business and recreational diving.
A spokesperson for the Italian tour operator said the divers’ equipment gave the impression to be standard recreational gear, and never appropriate for deep dives.
The Italian tour operator that managed the diving trip has denied authorising or knowing in regards to the group’s deep dive, which exceeded local limits, its lawyer told Italian local publication Corriere della Sera.
On May 17 — three days after the tragic accident — three Finnish specialist divers arrived on the scene. They managed to locate the bodies of the remaining 4 Italians on May 18 within the deepest section of the caves.
Following the rescue, three expert divers who recovered the bodies handed over GoPro cameras which were found with the group.
While the footage has not yet been made public, it’s hoped they might piece together the group’s final moments as investigators scramble to determine what happened to the group after they dived deep below the advisable depth.
MORE: Mother of three women who died off Brighton beach also drowned, family reveals
MORE: Tributes to bus driver killed in confrontation on Battersea Bridge
MORE: Mosque shooters who killed three ‘livestreamed their attack’ after stealing guns