An elite squad of divers is in a race against time to recover the final bodies of the five Italians who died in Thursday’s tragic incident in the Maldives — hoping they can reach their remains before the sharks do.
Only the body of the doomed group’s diving instructor has been found so far — while a Maldivian military rescue diver perished during the previous search for the other missing divers.
The crack newly assembled European team, including three top divers from Finland, is set to resume the mission to recover the remaining four bodies from inside the treacherous network of underwater caves Monday.
The team, assembled and dispatched by Divers Alert Network Europe, includes Sami Paakkarinen and Patrik Gronqvist, who previously successfully recovered surviving divers from a 2014 incident in Norway.
Some of the group also took part in 2018’s successful rescue of a Thai youth soccer team trapped in a cave.
“We’ll bring [the victims’ bodies] back. We can’t leave them at the mercy of the sharks. We need experts here,” DAN Europe CEO Laura Marroni told Italian newspaper La Stampa.
With the divers disappearing after going 200 feet underwater, speed is of the essence, Marroni warned.
“Unfortunately, in warm waters, even if we don’t know exactly what fauna is in the cave, we can’t rule out the risk of predators like sharks or environmental impacts,” she said.
“During past recoveries, the worst happened. So every hour that passes is crucial,” Marroni said.
The elite rescuers have experience of diving to depths of nearly 500 feet, giving them options traditional divers don’t have.
“We offered our decades of experience and selected the best and most experienced divers immediately available: the Finnish team,” Marroni said.
“We are talking about people among the most competent in the world for these operations,” she said.
The team arrived in the Maldives capital, Male, on Sunday, hours after the death of the Maldivian search diver, Sgt. Major Mohamed Mahudhee.
Mahudhee was filmed Friday standing next to the Maldives President Dr Mohamed Muizzu as plans were made for what turned out to be his final mission.
Recent bad weather has also delayed the recovery mission, while a lack of available technical equipment in the Indian Ocean nation is hampering efforts, too.
“The Maldives aren’t known for deep-sea diving or cave diving, so there’s a lack of training or organization for this type of recovery,” Marroni said.
The dead tourists — all Italian — were Monica Montefalcone, 52, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 20, Muriel Oddenino, 31, Gianluca Benedetti, 44, and Federico Gualtieri, 31.
All but one of the victims was from the University of Genoa in northern Italy, while one of the party members survived after making a split-second decision not to enter the water at Vaavu Atoll.
Saturday’s search ended without the recovery of any further remains, with only diving instructor Benedetti’s remains confirmed to have been found.
It’s feared that oxygen toxicity — or the overload of oxygen in a body, which can be triggered by a deep dive — could have been responsible for the deaths.
Italy has launched its own investigation into the tragedy, which took place on board a tourist yacht, “Duke of York.”
The luxury vessel, which had around 25 passengers on board at the time, did not have a permit allowing dives to go down more than 100 feet.
The tour operator, Italian company Albatros Top Boat, has insisted no dive beyond that depth was authorized.
The company’s lawyer, herself an experienced diver, is flying to the Maldives to personally supervise the recovery mission.
“I want to understand what happened to these poor people and I want to follow the recovery of their bodies,” Orietta Stella said.
