Cave divers died after 'taking wrong turn' and getting lost in darkness, investigators believe

Italian divers died in deep undersea caves in the Maldives after investigators believe they lost their way. The divers are thought to have entered a pitch-black cave with no exit instead of swimming back through a passageway leading to open sea. A wrong turn may have been made because flippers stirred up sand, turning the water murky and reducing visibility of the correct route. The coral cavern system was around 60 metres deep, leaving little margin for error. Experts estimate they had about 10 to 12 minutes of air for exploring. After becoming stuck in a dead end, panic would have quickly depleted their remaining air. Their bodies were recovered during a technical operation by expert divers flown in from Finland.

"Investigators believe the divers lost their way and ended up in a dead end where they ran out of air. Instead of swimming through a passageway that led back to the open sea, the divers are believed to have taken a wrong turn and entered a pitch-black cave that had no exit. They may have missed the correct exit because their flippers had stirred up the sandy floor of the cave system, turning the water murky and making it hard to see the right route."

"Experts believe they probably had just 10 to 12 minutes of air available for exploring the caverns. Once they became stuck in the dead end and, as panic set in, it would have quickly run out. The coral cavern system they were exploring was at a depth of around 60 metres, meaning there would have been little margin for error."

"The divers vanished last week after embarking on a dive off the island of Alimathaa in an atoll called Vaavu, south of Malé, the capital of the Maldives. Their bodies were recovered in a highly technical operation carried out by three expert divers, who were flown in from Finland, earlier this week. The Italians descended from their dive boat, entered a first, large underwater cave, and then swam through a 30 metre-long passageway that led to a second cave."

"It was there that they ran into trouble. Instead of exploring for a few minutes and retracing their route, they entered a third, smaller cave with no exit. It was there that the Finnish divers found four bodies. The fifth body, of Gianluca Benedetti, a dive instructor, was found in the first, larger cave. He had either decided to wait there while the others explored the cave system, or had accompanied them all the way in and somehow managed to nearly find his way to safety by himself."

Read at Irish Independent