Add The New York Post on Google An elite squad of Finnish divers on Wednesday recovered the final two bodies of the Italian tourists who were trapped 200 feet in a shark-infested underwater cave in the Maldives.
Divers recovered the bodies of Giorgia Sommacal, 22, and researcher Muriel Oddenino, 31, from the Vaavu Atoll cave — six days after their disappearance, sources at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told the ANSA News Agency.
Autopsies have not yet been carried out on the bodies, but it’s likely the remains will be transported to a morgue in the Maldives capital, Male.
On Tuesday, the diving squad, from Finland, recovered the remains of University of Genoa ecology teacher Monica Montefalcone, 52, and researcher Federico Gualtieri, 31.
Officials were seen shielding the bodies from public view while they were being transferred from a police boat to an ambulance at Male Harbour.
The divers faced a race against time amid fears the bodies could be consumed by sharks – and they used advanced technical systems, including closed-circuit rebreathers, a system that recycles exhaled breathing gas and removes carbon dioxide through a chemical scrubber, which allows for “significantly longer dives,” a spokesperson for the Divers’ Alert Network Europe said.
The bodies were found within the cave’s third segment on Monday — after recovery operations restarted following the death of a military diver.
Last week, the remains of diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, 44, were recovered on Friday near the cave’s entrance.
The quintet was among 25 Italian tourists on board the Duke of York boat before they vanished during the expedition.
The dive, which took place near the island of Alimathaa, got underway at 11 a.m. last Thursday and concerns grew when the divers failed to return an hour later.
It sparked a range of theories on what may have led to their disappearance and subsequent deaths.
Pulmonologist Claudio Micheletto suggested oxygen toxicity — in which divers inhale too high a concentration of oxygen that it becomes fatal — may have been a contributing factor.
“Death from oxygen toxicity, or hyperoxia, is one of the most dramatic deaths that can occur during a dive — a horrible end,” the expert told the Italian outlet Adnkronos.
Alfonso Bolognini, president of the Italian Society of Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine, speculated on how the conditions underwater could cause panic and lead to fatal mistakes.
“Inside a cave at a depth of 50 meters, all it takes is a problem for a diver or a panic attack for a diver,” he told the outlet.
