Wrong Turn: A sandbar near the Maldives cave may have pushed the Italian divers without key gear into a d3ad-end tunnel they couldn’t escape

Following the recovery of the last of the five Italian divers’ bodies from the 50m+ deep Dhekunu Kandu cave in the Maldives’ Vaavu Atoll, DAN Europe and the recovery dive-team have spoken out about what might have occurred on the fatal dive.

The specialist team of three Finnish cave-divers had been mobilised and co-ordinated by DAN Europe together with surface-support teams in co-operation with the Maldives National Defence Force, police and Italian authorities.

Sami Paakkarinen, who with Jenni Westerlund and Patrik Grönqvist made up the team of CCR recovery divers, has told Italian press that the equipment the Italian divers had been using was not underwater caving gear and “was not optimal”.

He said that he and his team would never venture into such an environment without a reel and guideline. “Unfortunately, in most cave-diving accidents, the main cause is always human error,” he said.

Paakkarinen described the silty conditions in the system, the darkness beyond the cavern (the first chamber) and the difficulty of identifying the exit route. The four divers had been found together in the same “dead-end” area off the second chamber, which they appeared to have entered while trying to find their way out.

But he denied what some commentators had suggested, that a strong current might have swept the divers away, and said that within the cave system the current was only slight.

DAN Europe’s marketing & communications manager Cristian Pellegrini, has explained to Divernet that beyond the first chamber a 30m-long narrow passage led to the large second chamber.

“According to the information we have, there is an incline at the end of the tunnel,” said Pellegrini. “Therefore you need to go slightly downhill and then uphill to reach the second chamber, after passing a sandy mound.

“When looking down the exit passage towards the cavern on the other side, the entrance may not be obvious because of this sandy mound. This second chamber lacks natural light and its sandy bottom can significantly reduce visibility if disturbed.”

No way out

Earlier accounts that referred to the bodies being found in a “third chamber” might have created the impression that the Italian divers had penetrated to the far end of a lateral system.

“I wouldn’t call it a ‘third chamber’ – it was a dead-end tunnel.” said Pellegrini. The dive-team had estimated it to be about 50m long. “Its entrance closely resembled the passageway leading to the cavern and the exit, but it was much more obvious than the right exit when observing the scene from the second chamber.”

The presence of the sand mound had, he said, “probably been secondary to the fact that the group apparently did not deploy a line, use markers or adopt procedures typical of cavern- and cave-diving when entering the cave.

“Many different things can go wrong if cave-diving procedures, equipment or experience are insufficient when entering a cave.”

Pellegrini was unable to confirm suggestions that all the Italian divers had been using single tanks of air. DAN Europe’s CEO Laura Marroni had earlier told Italian press only that the divers had been using “standard tanks”, referring to open-circuit scuba as opposed to CCR systems.

If the divers’ breathing-gas supplies had been limited at depths beyond 50m, realisation that they had taken the wrong route could have triggered panic and accelerated gas consumption, leaving little opportunity for repeated attempts to find the exit route, she said.

Parallel inquiry

Meanwhile three academics from the same department of the University of Genoa as victim Prof Monica Montefacone are reported by Italian media to have been interviewed by homeland investigators carrying out an inquiry parallel to that of the Maldivian authorities.

It is not clear whether any of the academics had been with the dive-group on the Duke of York liveaboard, though they had reportedly worked on Maldives marine-research projects with Montefalcone.

One of them is said to have handed over laptops, external drives and phones belonging to the divers. The police will be seeking evidence of whether or not the cave-dive was pre-planned, whether it was officially declared and whether technical equipment or continuous cave guidelines were intended to be used.

They will also be interested in whether the fatal dive was connected to the official coral-research project on which Montefalcone and research assistant Muriel Oddenino had been engaged on the trip, or whether it had been a separate private initiative.

The other divers lost in the incident were Montefalcone’s daughter Giorgia Sommacal, graduate Federico Gualtieri and liveaboard operations manager and dive professional Gianluca Benedetti, whose body had been found near the cave entrance on the evening of the incident.

His communications with the other divers in the group are being studied by police, according to Italian press reports.

Duke of York operators Albatros Top Boat and Luxury Yacht Maldives have claimed that the dive, which went far beyond the standard Maldives 30m recreational depth limit, had been unauthorised. The liveaboard’s operating licence has been temporarily suspended pending the results of the investigations.

The Finnish dive-team have now removed all operational recovery equipment from the cave and passed any equipment and property of the fatalities to the Maldivian police as part of the investigation. Video footage taken by the Italian divers is reported to be under examination.

Their bodies were expected to be repatriated to Italy today (23 May), with post mortem medical examinations taking place in the coming days.