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«I made at least 50 dives in the Alimathà caves, with the right precautions and the right equipment. Every time it was a fantastic experience but with the awareness of the extreme risks I was taking.”
Shafraz Naeem, a Maldivian diver and professional diving pioneer, is an expert in sea cave exploration in the Maldives atolls with 30 years of diving experience. He knows the caves of tragedy like a second home.
«Expertise and precaution – explains the former military diver who is now a consultant for the Defense and Police of the Maldives – are necessary: for me going down to Alimathà was not difficult, I am a diver specialized in cave diving and every time I had the right mixture of gas, the appropriate equipment and a backup system».
Requirements and equipment that, according to Naeem, the five Italian divers did not have because “we are talking about environments at the limit”, environments that Naeem knows well having, among the many records, also that of the “Across Maldives” expedition, a 335 kilometer submarine journey through the atolls of Malé Nord, Malé Sud and Vaavu, over 70 hours underwater in more than 35 dives.
“The authorities have confirmed that the operator exceeded the Maldives’ recreational depth limit of 30 meters and carried out the dives without the necessary permits – says Naeem – Everyone knows that the rules were broken, they didn’t even have permission to do research at those depths.”
Naeem knows that cave well, he has visited and photographed it: “the entrance is between 55 and 58 meters deep, it goes in to about 100 metres, then it forks and continues further and further down”. In short, literally a descent into the abyss through tunnels.
«Deep cave diving is generally considered advanced technical diving requiring specialized training, rigorous procedures, proper gas planning and appropriate equipment configurations. Even the most experienced divers can face considerable challenges in such environments.”
Naeem is convinced, however, that the five Italian divers died “due to a combination of causes because in those extreme environments a single problem generates others in a chain and an unexpected event can quickly turn into a tragedy”.
«It would be irresponsible to state precisely what happened without a thorough investigation – he explains – However, based on my experience, a cave dive to almost 58 meters in normal air already presents multiple risk factors. At that depth, nitrogen narcosis can severely impair awareness. Gas consumption increases rapidly and in an environment like a cave, going back to the surface is very complex.” Therefore, he explains, whatever the triggering factor, “narcosis, stress, disorientation, loss of visibility, navigation problems, insufficient gas reserves, equipment problems, separation from the group or panic”, are all factors that can occur in sequence and in a cascade.