The search for the four missing Italian tourists in the Maldives has claimed a new victim. A diver from the National Defense Forces of the archipelago died this Saturday in the hospital after being admitted in critical condition during rescue operations in the underwater caves of Alimathà, in the Vaavu atoll.
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The Maldivian Coast Guard had resumed dives at dawn with a team of eight specialists. The first two to dive had the mission to locate and precisely mark the entrance to the network of caves where the divers disappeared last Thursday. The remaining six would intervene afterwards, in shifts, to try to recover the bodies.
So far, only the body of Gianluca Benedetti, a 44-year-old professional diver from Padua, has been identified. On Friday, a severe storm forced the temporary suspension of the search efforts for the other four missing: a university professor, her daughter, and two researchers.
The five were part of a group of Italian tourists aboard the Duke of York, a diving boat from which they made a deep dive into the Alimathà caves. The alarm was raised when they did not return to the surface after several hours without news.
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Alongside the rescue operations, the Rome Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation to determine if safety regulations were followed during the dive. Investigators are examining whether the group descended below the limits allowed for recreational diving and if they had authorizations for scientific exploration.
The initial hypotheses point to three possible causes: disorientation inside the cave due to suspended sand, a failure in the breathing gas mixture, or that one of the divers became trapped and exhausted the oxygen along with his companions in a rescue attempt. Investigators also want to verify if the so-called Ariadne’s thread, a guide cable essential in cave diving to ensure the return to the surface, was used correctly. The accident is already considered one of the most serious recorded in the history of diving in the Maldivian archipelago.
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