The bodies of the four Italian divers missing since last Thursday in the Alimathà underwater cave, in the Vaavu atoll, in the Maldives have been identified. They were located by Dan Europe’s team of Finnish speleo divers, who were still submerged at the time of the alert sent to the operators on the surface. Maldivian government spokesman Mohamed Hussain Shareef told CNN that rescuers expect to recover two of the four bodies of the Italians on Tuesday and the other two on Wednesday.
According to Shareef, Dan’s 3 Finnish divers were joined by a fourth expert and the local coast guard. Specialist equipment is supplied from the UK and Australia and the team has underwater scooters and gas tanks capable of recycling air. Each dive in the recovery missions in the Maldives is limited to approximately 3 hours and in case of an obstacle the dive is interrupted and the divers return to the surface.
The four victims in the Alimathà cave
They are Monica Montefalcone, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, Muriel Oddenino and Federico Gualtieri, the four Italian divers who never resurfaced after Thursday’s excursion into a cave about 50 meters deep. The fifth victim, Gianluca Benedetti, was recovered on Friday.
Dan Europe’s operation with rebreather and Trimix mixture
The Dan Europe team is made up of three expert Finnish divers – Sami Paakkarinen, Jenni Westerlund and Patrik Grönqvist – who dived this morning with closed circuit rebreathers, Trimix mixture (nitrogen, helium, oxygen) and underwater scooters, in weather conditions described as optimal. The entrance to the cave is 47 meters deep.