On Wednesday, a specialized team of Finnish divers successfully retrieved the last two bodies of Italian tourists who had become trapped 200 feet deep in a shark-infested underwater cave in the Maldives.
The divers recovered the remains of 22-year-old Giorgia Sommacal and 31-year-old researcher Muriel Oddenino from a cave in Vaavu Atoll, six days after they went missing. This information was confirmed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the ANSA News Agency.
While autopsies have yet to be conducted, it is expected that the bodies will be moved to a morgue in Male, the capital of the Maldives.
On the previous day, the Finnish diving team had also recovered the bodies of Monica Montefalcone, a 52-year-old ecology professor from the University of Genoa, and 31-year-old researcher Federico Gualtieri.
Authorities took measures to maintain the privacy of the deceased, shielding the bodies from public view during their transfer from a police boat to an ambulance at Male Harbour.
The divers were in a race against time due to concerns that sharks might consume the bodies. They relied on advanced equipment, including closed-circuit rebreathers, which recirculate exhaled air and remove carbon dioxide, enabling much longer dive times, according to a spokesperson from the Divers’ Alert Network Europe.
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.
