The Maldives is known as an idyllic sun paradise, but when the accident happened last week, the weather was grim. A yellow warning had been issued for the area around Vaavu Atoll, a few miles south of the capital, Malé.
The diving began on Thursday morning. When the divers did not return later in the day, they were reported missing. On Thursday evening, a man was found dead at the mouth of a cave nearly 50 meters deep. On Monday, four bodies were located in the inner parts of the cave system, which goes down to 60 meters. The group consisted of three women and two men, one of whom was a professor of marine biology.
Not included
The question is what they were doing so far down. The limit for recreational diving in the Maldives is 30 meters deep. Maldivian authorities had given the group permission to study corals at depths of up to 50 meters, but the cave was not mentioned in the application.
A spokesperson for the group's client, the University of Genoa (Unige), told the BBC that deep-sea diving was not part of their research mission at all.
The situation was further complicated when the search operation led to the death of one of the local rescue divers. A Maldivian military diver suffered from decompression sickness upon ascent - and the operation was paused. The military diver was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Accidents uncommon
On Tuesday, the rescue operation resumed, reinforced with experts from Finland, who specialize in high-risk cave diving, among other things. Two of the bodies were successfully recovered. On Wednesday, the remaining two bodies will be recovered in another operation. All of the bodies still need to be identified.
Unige concludes that the accidental dive was done entirely privately, and “outside the scope of the mission approved by the university.” Two of the five Italian divers were also not listed as researchers in the application to Maldivian authorities.
The Maldives is known as a safe country, and fatal diving accidents are relatively uncommon.
