Tragedy in the Dekunu Kandu cave: causes of death of Italian divers in the Maldives

From what has emerged so far, the tragedy would appear to have been caused by an underestimation of the risks of hiking in what Laura Marroni, the ceo of Dan Europe, the organisation that sent the recovery team, defines speaking to ANSA as 'a complex and deep cave, the penetration of which requires experience and appropriate equipment'.

A cave that probably could not be visited in its full width, two large chambers divided by a narrow corridor of 30 metres, carrying 12-litre tanks like the ones the five Italians had. In the second chamber, the cave descends to 60 metres.

"At those depths," explains Marroni, "you have a range of 10-12 minutes with that type of cylinder.

The five Italians, after the external cavern, the one connected with the sea, entered the corridor - three metres wide, about one and a half metres high and 30 metres long - and entered the second chamber.

Here they probably tried to go back through the same corridor, whose entrance, however, due to an optical effect caused also by the sand present, seen from the lower room does not appear to be an exit; they then took another to the left.

It was the fatal choice: it was in fact a closed tunnel from which the four were no longer able to return (the guide, Gianluca Benedetti, had been found in the first room, he may have been able to find the right way but too late).

There, one next to the other, the Dan's team of subspeleologists found them.

They had equipped themselves with much 'heavier' equipment to attempt the recovery: from the rebreather, a system that allows one to stay underwater for more than 5 hours, to underwater scooters, to the sagola, the Ariadne's thread to be fixed on the cave walls and essential to find the way out. It is not clear whether the Italian expedition had it.

Finnish divers found sagas - ropes used in rescue activities - on the walls but they may have been fixed by Maldivian divers who dived to recover the bodies before them (one even died).

Laura Marroni does not prejudge whether the five Italians underestimated the risks, but warns against the phenomenon of 'overconfidence'.

ù It is the overconfidence that more experienced people sometimes have that leads them not to adequately consider the dangers of what they are doing.

More precise answers will come from the investigation by the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office, which will have all the elements in hand - including the testimonies of the other people who were on the Duke of York - to reconstruct the dynamics of what happened.

Answers that will not ease the families' pain.