Search operations to locate the victims of the tragedy that occurred in the Maldives have been suspended and will resume at dawn tomorrow. The underwater caves of the Vaavu atoll have become a death trap for five Italians who never resurfaced from a dive in a cave that is over fifty meters deep. The only body recovered so far is that of Gianluca Benedetti.
Gianluca Benedetti and the other victims of the fatal dive
Benedetti lived in San Vito di Vigonza, in the province of Padua, together with his partner Silvia. He had worked at the BCC in Piove di Sacco, first as a cashier and then in the business center, but he had decided to change his life. And the Maldives had become his home. A diving instructor and boat leader by profession, Benedetti worked for Albatros Top Boat, an Italian tour operator that deals with cruises and stays in the Indian lard archipelago. He described himself as “an energetic and extremely sporty person, a lover of reading, classic cinema and chess”.
The other victims are Monica Montefalcone, 51 years old, professor of Ecology at the University of Genoa; his daughter, Giorgia Sommacal, 23; Muriel Oddenino di Poirino, researcher from the Turin area; Federico Gualtieri, instructor from Borgomanero, in the Novara area. They were all experienced divers and were on a science cruise.
“High risk research”
“The searches are at high risk” Damiano Francovigh, Italian ambassador to Colombo, told ‘Diario del Giorno’ on Retequattro. “Yesterday the body of our compatriot from Padua was recovered (Gianluca Benedetti, ed.)”. “The coast guard – he added – dived again in the place where this tragedy occurred”, namely a cave “which is located over 60 meters deep, in an area on an atoll south of the capital Malè”.
“The cave consists of three successive environments” explained Francovigh. “They managed to reach the first two, not the third. In these first two environments they were unable to glimpse the bodies of the other compatriots. Tomorrow, they will try to make a further dive, also depending on the weather conditions which were really bad this morning. They have guaranteed that tomorrow, after this first attempt they made, they should also be able to reach the last of the environments of this cave and therefore, probably, see the bodies of our compatriots”.
As for the causes of the tragedy, the ambassador declared that “we are not yet able to say exact details. The Maldivian police are carrying out an investigation and, based on the results, all the various aspects that led to the tragic accident can be clarified. For the moment, our utmost attention is being paid to trying to coordinate the Maldivian authorities in speeding up the timescale in which the bodies of our compatriots can be found”.
Monica Montefalcone’s husband: “They were all expert divers”
“They were all expert divers” Carlo Sommacal, husband of professor Monica Montefalcone and father of Giorgia, told Tg4. “My wife is multi-licensed – he continued – she has more than 5 thousand dives, she has been diving for 36 years, she is an instructor, she has all the possible licenses; my daughter is an expert because she has been under water for more than ten years with my wife and the others were equally expert too”.
“I know the environment”, he underlined, adding that “they are very serious people, they have a policy where if there is an alert or problems they don’t come down and I know my wife who is a very meticulous, serious and capable person”. “I am convinced that the dive was carried out in the conditions that could have been permitted.”
“I can’t know what happened” the woman’s husband said again, adding that “the hypotheses are endless”. “My wife is rigid, meticulous”, he underlined, and if there had been a risky situation “she would never have brought our daughter, who is an expert anyway”.