The five Italian tourists who lost their lives inside an underwater cave in the Maldives last week were just 15 minutes from the surface when they died, according to Finnish rescue diver Sami Paakkarinen, one of the elite team who spent days recovering their bodies from the pitch-black depths of the Thinwana Kandu cave system.
Paakkarinen, a world-renowned cave diving specialist who was flown in by DAN Europe specifically for the recovery mission, has now spoken to The Sun about what he found inside the cave, and his account is as heartbreaking as it is damning.
The group, which included University of Genoa ecology professor Monica Montefalcone, 52, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 20, researcher Muriel Oddenino, 31, marine biology graduate Federico Gualtieri, 31, and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, 44, vanished on May 14 after descending 164 feet into the cave system at Vaavu Atoll. They were reported missing when they failed to resurface, triggering a multi-day search that also claimed the life of Maldivian rescue diver Staff Sergeant Mohamed Mahudhee.
When the Finnish team finally located the four remaining bodies deep inside the cave's third chamber, what they found alongside them told its own grim story. The group were not carrying the equipment they needed to survive a cave dive of that complexity. Most critically, they had no diving reel or guide rope, a piece of kit so fundamental to cave diving safety that it has its own name among divers: Ariadne's Thread.
Without a guide rope, once a diver becomes disoriented in a dark, multi-chambered underwater cave system, there is simply no way to find their way back. There is no reference point, no trail to follow, no second chance. The leading theory among experts is that the group took a wrong turn on their way out, entering a dead-end corridor to the left of the real exit, possibly confused by a sandbank that created an optical illusion hiding the correct passage. All four bodies were found together inside that dead-end chamber, 200 feet below the surface, just 15 minutes from open water.
Making the situation even more troubling is the depth the group descended to. The boat they were diving from, the MV Duke of York, had permission for dives of up to 30 metres and divers were briefed on arrival about that limit. The group went to nearly double that depth. The Duke of York's operating licence has since been suspended indefinitely, and prosecutors in Rome have opened a culpable homicide investigation into the tragedy. The Italian tour operator has denied any knowledge of or authorisation for the deeper dive.
Paakkarinen was careful not to assign blame but was clear about what the evidence showed. "Unfortunately, in most cave diving accidents, the main cause is always human error," he said. "The equipment we found them with wasn't optimal. They weren't using underwater caving gear. In general, for those who visit caves, it's known that it's not very wise to do so without a safety line."
GoPro cameras and dive computers recovered from the bodies are now being examined by investigators, and it is hoped the footage may finally answer the questions that families, authorities and the diving community are desperately seeking to resolve.
