The tragedy of those while they were diving in the Maldives islands, in the Indian Ocean, has added one more death this Saturday, that of one of the divers of the rescue teams, according to Italian media reports. The operations to recover the bodies are being complex and only one of the deceased has been found so far. The group had descended into a dangerous underwater grotto in the Alimathà area, where they were trapped for reasons that are still unknown.
The deceased this Saturday is a member of the Maldives army, Mohammed Mahudhee, who was transferred in serious condition to a hospital in the country, where he later died. The first information points to a depressurization problem when ascending to the surface, which may be due to a too rapid ascent or excessive time at great depth.
The five Italian divers were very expert and were participating in a scientific dive in the Thinwana Kandu cave, known as the Shark Grotto, in the Vaavu atoll, also called Felidhoo. “They were collecting data, they were not on vacation,” said one of their colleagues, who assured that the weather conditions were good on the day of the event. It was an annual trip organized every year for Italian marine scientists.
However, this Saturday a controversial factor has emerged in the local press, which states that the accident site is at a depth below the legal limit authorized for diving in the Asian country, 30 meters. The grotto opens at 45 meters and descends through successive galleries and three chambers to 60 meters.
It is possible that the group had requested the necessary permits from the authorities, but this has not yet been clarified. The diary Mihaaruone of the most important in the country, reports that an official investigation will be opened to find out if the expedition has complied with the rules, although the Government has stressed that the first thing is to find the missing people.
In the second of the three cavities of the grotto, the only body has been found, that of Gianluca Benedetti, a diving instructor from Padua. His air cylinder was empty, which suggests that something blocked his path or he got lost. This Saturday, search efforts attempted to access the last chamber of the underwater tunnel.
The other victims are Monica Montefalcone, associate professor of marine ecology at the University of Genoa who organized these trips; his daughter, Giorgia Sommacal, 22; Muriel Oddenino, a 31-year-old marine biologist from Piedmont; and Federico Gualtieri, 31 years old, from the same region, graduate in Marine Biology and Ecology and diving instructor.
Carlo Sommacal, Montefalcone’s husband, who has lost his wife and daughter, has assured that his wife was “one of the best divers in the world”, she was very prudent and would never have put their daughter in a risky situation.
There are 20 other Italians on the expedition, who waited in vain for their exit to the surface aboard the ship. Duke of Yorkin which they traveled. They raised the alarm when more than an hour had passed, the agreed time for the dive. The ship was not able to return to port until this Saturday, due to bad weather, and is already docked in the port of Malé, the capital. Authorities have suspended his license as a precautionary measure while investigations continue. It had already been suspended in 2010, for reasons that have not been specified, local media in the Maldives have stated.
