Prosecutors in Italy have launched a culpable homicide investigation into the deaths of five Italian scuba divers in a cave near Alimathaa Island in Vaavu atoll, Maldives.
The two remaining bodies, those of Giorgia Sommacal, daughter of the group’s leader Monica Montefalcone, whose body was recovered yesterday, and Muriel Oddenino a research fellow at the University of Genoa, with which the group were affiliated, were recovered on the morning of Wednesday, 20 May.
The body of Italian dive instructor Gianluca Benedetti, who is believed to have been the group’s guide, was recovered on the same day the incident occurred, and has since been returned to Italy for an autopsy.
A sixth death, that of Maldives National Defence Force Staff Sergeant Mohamed Mahudhee, who died during the first search and rescue operation on Saturday, is also under investigation.
The Finnish team of expert cave divers who recovered the bodies have also found the group’s underwater video cameras, and is expected to return to the cave where the bodies were found to continue their investigations tomorrow.
Investigations by the Italian media have led to the discovery that the group had a permit to dive to 50 metres, 20m deeper than the default recreational limit of 30m mandated by Maldivian law.
While the existence of the permit does not necessarily imply that was the reason the group became trapped in a cave, it has caused some concern among the authorities.
The permit, issued in February and valid between 7 and 17 May did not include two of the divers who were part of the group diving at the time of their disappearance.
While there is no evidence as yet that the divers entered the cave intentionally, it has been noted that the permit did not include cave diving, and the divers were not equipped for a technical cave penetration.
Many speculative theories remain about the cause of the incident, including a surge in current causing a Venturi effect around the cave’s entrance, which caused the divers to be pushed inside and unable to escape.
The Venturi effect is the principle by which scuba diving regulators operate, in which the movement of a fluid or gas through a narrow passage creates a reduction in pressure, which can cause fluid from higher-pressure surroundings to be forced into the flow.
The Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office has ordered autopsies to be conducted as soon as the divers’ remains are returned to Italy.
The action camera footage will be analysed and other divers on board the liveaboard Duke of York, from which the fatal dive was conducted, will be interviewed as part of the investigation.
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