On May 14, four Italian nationals, along with their diving instructor, entered an underwater cave system in the Maldives’ Vaavu Atoll to conduct marine research, but never resurfaced.
A search-and-rescue operation was soon launched to locate them, but as time passed without results, the mission turned into a search-and-recovery operation.
Highlights
- Five Italian divers lost their lives during a deep-sea cave expedition in the Maldives’ Vaavu Atoll.
- Following the recovery operation, a mortician explained the effects warm tropical waters can have on submerged bodies over time.
- Authorities in both Italy and the Maldives have launched investigations into the tragedy to determine accountability.
Well-regarded Finnish diving trio Sami Paakkarinen, Patrik Grönqvist, and Jenni Westerlund were called in to help, retrieving the tourists’ bodies between May 18 and 19. They were repatriated to Italy on Saturday, May 23.
While Italy will conduct autopsies on the victims before handing them over to loved ones, Lauren Frost, a licensed mortician who runs a namesake YouTube channel, has made grim observations about their remains.
A mortician has detailed how the human body decomposes underwater, challenging portrayals seen in films and television
Image credits: giorgia_sommacal
Frost is a funeral director and an embalmer, according to her YouTube channel, which has 593K subscribers.
In a video posted about the Maldives diving tragedy on Tuesday, May 26, Lauren said, “A week underwater is a long time, especially in warm tropical salt water, because decomposition does not stop underwater. It changes.”
She added, “A lot of people imagine underwater bodies floating around dramatically like in the movies, but that’s usually not what happens initially.
Image credits: daneurope
“Most bodies actually sink at first, especially divers, because they’re wearing heavy tanks, weight systems, wetsuits, gear, and equipment specifically designed to help control buoyancy.
“But as decomposition begins, bacteria inside the body naturally start producing gases. Over time, those gases can create changes in buoyancy.”
Image credits: Taucher.net
Lauren went on to say that bodies found in the Thinawana Kandu cave, located 165 feet below the surface and popularly known as Shark Cave, would likely remain submerged for far longer than most people realize.
Because of this, reports that one of the deceased was found “floating against the roof of the cave” surprised her.
However, she offered a scientific explanation for how that could have happened.
According to her, individual body composition, the amount of residual air trapped in diving equipment, and the body's position relative to underwater currents can all affect whether a body floats or sinks.
The divers had descended beyond the recreational diving limit in the Maldives without optimal equipment
Image credits: daneurope
The Maldives allows diving aficionados to go 30 meters (98 feet) underwater, but Monica Montefalcone, Giorgia Sommacal, Muriel Oddenino, Federico Gualtieri, and Gianluca Benedetti had secured special authorization to dive as deep as 50 meters (164 feet).
Sami Paakkarinen told La Repubblica that as soon as his team found the bodies, they realized the cause of the tragedy could have been “human error.”
He questioned why the divers had entered the cave without Ariadne’s thread — a diving reel or guide rope, claiming he and his fellow rescuers would never venture into such an environment without it.
Paakkarinen was careful not to go into detail but said the group was also not using proper underwater caving gear, which reflected negligence on their part.
A GoPro camera was among the equipment recovered, which officials hope will provide a better understanding of how the tragedy unfolded.
Monica Montefalcone’s husband, Carlo, hopes the GoPro footage could help him understand what happened
Image credits: Unsplash (Not the actual photo)
Carlo Sommacal described Monica as “one of the best divers in the world,” saying she had completed 5,000 dives and was “always conscientious” and “never reckless.”
“I’m no expert, but from what I’m seeing and reading, even the experts don’t have definite answers and are merely making hypotheses,” he told Reuters in a WhatsApp message.
Image credits: Facebook
Additionally, speaking to La Repubblica, Sommacal vouched for Benedetti’s professionalism, calling him “meticulous.”
“He checked everything: the tanks, the weather conditions. He was not a fool,” he said.
An investigation into the diving tragedy has been ordered in both the Maldives and Italy
Image credits: presidencymv
Mohamed Hussain Shareef, a spokesperson for the Maldives government, said the island nation’s investigation will focus on whether those in charge of the expedition “took the correct precautions.”
The Duke of York vessel, which carried the divers and 20 more Italians out to sea, has lost its license pending the investigation, according to Shareef, who said: “Everything will be looked into.”
Image credits: daneurope
The trip was managed by Albatross Top Boat, an Italian tour company with offices in both Italy and the Maldives.
Orietta Stella, the lawyer representing the company, told Italian daily Corriere della Sera that the vessel’s operator did not know the group planned to descend beyond the recreational limit.
She also clarified that Albatross did not employ the vessel’s crew and that they were hired locally.
Prosecutors in Rome, meanwhile, have opened a culpable homicide investigation into the tragedy.
"Why are people always going into caves? No good comes out of caves," a netizen remarked
