Luca Pedrali, a record-breaking cave and technical diver, has died during a dive at Su Gologone Springs on the Italian island of Sardinia.
Pedrali, 60, who was nicknamed ‘re degli abissi’ – ‘king of the deep’ – by the Italian media, reportedly surfaced from a dive after feeling unwell underwater, but quickly became unresponsive.
His support team performed CPR while alerting the emergency services, who continued resuscitation efforts after arriving on the scene, but were unable to save him.
Pedrali held the Italian depth record with a 264.8 metre (866 ft) dive in Lake Garda in 2017; he also set a national cave diving record in 2014 with a 1,362 metre penetration beneath the Apuan Alps.
Su Gologone Spring is a karst system located at the foot of Supramonte di Oliena, part of the Supramonte mountain range in eastern Sardinia.
The system is popular with cave divers and considered one of the most important freshwater springs in Italy, reaching a depth of at least 135 metres.
At the time of the incident, Pedrali was diving as part of a larger expedition to explore a possible connection between Su Gologone and the nearby Mussin Tomasu cave, in which a second team was diving.
Firefighters and members of the National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps (CNSAS) who were on site supporting the expedition were able to safely return the Mussin Tomasu team to the surface following Pedrali’s death.
Italian media outlets have drawn parallels to a similar tragedy in 2010, when the mayor of Ponte di Legno, Paolo Costa, lost his life at Su Gologone after suffering a medical emergency while diving the spring.
