A local expert who has dived in caves in the Maldives ‘countless times’ has described the terrifying final moments a group of five divers may have endured – and dubbed the tragedy an accident waiting to happen.
Alarm bells were raised on Thursday after five Italians, including a mother and daughter, failed to resurface after attempting to explore the caves at a depth of around 165ft (50m).
The body of the local instructor who led the group, Gianluca Benedetti, was discovered within the passageway from the mouth of the Thinwana Kandu cave, also known as Shark Cave, on Friday, at a depth of around 197ft (60m).
The rest of the group was found on Monday by the team of three Finnish divers trapped at the end of the tunnel, deep at the bottom of the cave’s third chamber, which is in complete darkness.
This now marks one of the worst single diving accidents in the history of the Indian Ocean nation.
‘I have visited those caves countless times. There is no current. They swam into that third cave. They chose to go in there,’ Shafraz Naeem, a former military diver for the Maldives National Defence Force, told the Daily Mail.
‘I believe the instructor intentionally swam away from the group. Maybe he legged it up before he ran out of air. The rest of the group died in that third chamber and Benedetti died in the passageway trying to get out.’
The cave is divided into three separate chambers, connected by narrow passageways, which sharks, stingrays and lobsters inhabit. Mr Naeem, despite being an expert diver, has intentionally never entered the third chamber due to safety concerns.
The cave opens at 164ft (50m), which is already significantly deeper than the 98ft (30m) recreational diving limit under regulations in the Maldives. The Indian Ocean nation is known as a diving location that strictly regulates technical diving, making it near impossible to do while restricting available equipment.
‘The cave is unforgiving,’ Mr Naeem, who is from the island of Male, described. ‘It is closed, pitch-black and you can only see where you shine the light.
‘If something goes wrong, you cannot shoot up to the surface like you can in open dives. You are stopped and restricted, and, at that depth of below 55m (181ft), it is just completely dangerous.’
The perilous conditions initially limited the search for the group, notably conducted by professional divers, due to considerations over oxygen and decompression – as well as rough weather and sea conditions.
An initial search operation for the victims ended in tragedy on Saturday when Maldivian military rescue diver Mohamed Mahudhee was admitted to hospital and died from decompression sickness after assisting in the recovery effort.
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