A Turkish Airlines flight repatriated the bodies of the four divers who died in the Maldives to Italy today, Saturday 23 May, after landing at around 1.10pm at Milan Malpensa airport. I am the marine biologist Monica Montefalcone, professor at the University of Genoa, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, the researcher Muriel Oddenino and the marine biologist Federico Gualtieri. The body of Gianluca Benedetti from Padua had already been repatriated in recent days.
The autopsies and the prosecutor’s investigation
The first scheduled autopsy will concern Gianluca Benedetti, a forty-three-year-old originally from Padua, instructor and boat leader of the group, whose body was the first to be recovered and brought back to Italy. The coffins were taken care of and transferred to the Gallarate hospital morgue. From Monday the fundamental autopsy investigations will begin to clarify the exact cause of the deaths.
The process is managed by the deputy prosecutor of the Republic of Busto Arsizio, Nadia Alessandra Calcaterra, who operates under formal delegation from the Rome prosecutor’s office. The Capitoline magistrates, responsible for crimes affecting Italian citizens abroad, have opened a case against unknown persons in which the crime of manslaughter is hypothesized. The magistrate will assign the tasks to the experts on Monday at a hearing scheduled for 12.30pm. The injured parties may appoint their own party consultants.
Italy agreed to share the results of the autopsies themselves, as reported by the spokesperson of the President of the Maldives, Mohamed Hussain Shareef, adding that two investigations have been launched: one into the death of the 5 Italian divers and the other to clarify the circumstances of the death of Mohamed Mahudhee, the Maldivian military diver who died during a first attempt to recover the bodies.
The hypotheses
The accident occurred inside the Hekunu Kandu (Alimathà) underwater cave system, in the Vaavu atoll, at a depth of between 50 and 60 metres. All the Italians involved were experienced divers. At first only the body of Gianluca Benedetti had been located, found near the mouth of the cave with the mixture cylinders completely exhausted.
To extract the other four bodies, trapped in the deepest and most remote sector of the cave, the intervention of an international team of speleosub specialists sent by Dan Europe (Divers Alert Network), composed of Finns Sami Paakkarinen, Jenni Westerlund and Patrik Gronqvist, was essential.
Experts cannot yet comment on the dynamics, but according to the latest information available, one of the hypotheses is that the five Italian divers may have lost their orientation inside the cave system of the Vaavu atoll. The group may have missed the corridor returning to the first chamber, the only one with an opening to the outside. In this search for a way out, the divers would have exhausted the air contained in the 12 liter cylinders supplied.