Bodies of Two Italian Divers Recovered And Taken To Maldives Capital For Identification

COLOMBO (News 1st); The bodies of two Italians who drowned in a scuba diving accident in the Maldives last week have been brought to the surface.

Maldivian government spokesperson Mohamed Hossain Shareef said they were retrieved from the third chamber of the underwater cave by the specialist divers from Finland after a two-hour operation.

The bodies of two Italians who drowned in a scuba diving accident are being transported to the capital, Male, for identification.

They were among five individuals who died in the accident, while two bodies remain inside the cave.

The first body recovered was that of an Italian diver, identified by Italian media as boat operations manager and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, who was found shortly after Thursday’s accident near Vaavu Atoll.

On Saturday, a Maldivian rescue diver involved in the search operation also died.

The remaining four missing divers were located on Monday by Finnish divers in the chamber of the cave farthest from the entrance.

The cave, known locally as “Shark Cave,” reaches depths of up to 60 metres.

Officials stated that the mission to recover the remaining two bodies will resume on Wednesday, with hopes that they can be retrieved on the same day.

The discovery of the bodies is expected to assist in determining the cause of the accident.

The recovery effort has been described as highly complex due to the depth of the cave, limited space, and poor visibility. While the cave entrance lies at a depth of 47 metres, its chambers extend to varying depths.

The operation was carried out by Finnish divers working alongside Maldivian police and coastguard teams. Authorities said the specialist divers brought the bodies up to a depth of 30 metres, after which coastguard divers took over the operation.

Four of the divers were part of a team from the University of Genoa. The university stated that it had not authorised any deep-sea dive as part of its scientific research.

A Maldivian government spokesperson confirmed that while the team had a permit to dive up to 50 metres, the cave itself had not been mentioned in their proposal.

The expedition was led by Monica Montefalcone, an associate professor of ecology at the University of Genoa, along with research fellow Muriel Oddenino. Their work focused on studying the effects of climate change on tropical biodiversity.

Also among the divers were Montefalcone’s daughter, Giorgia Sommacal, a student at the university, and recent graduate Federico Gualtieri.