Overview
- A three-person Finnish speleosub team sent by DAN Europe completed complex multi-day recovery dives that brought all five bodies to the surface, with the final recoveries completed on Wednesday, May 20.
- Investigators have seized GoPro cameras, dive computers, cylinders, torches and other equipment from the site and those items are now under analysis by Maldivian authorities as Rome’s Procura di Roma has opened a negligent-homicide file.
- Reports from divers and officials highlight possible safety gaps, including use of standard 12-litre recreational cylinders, limited lighting, and at least one short wetsuit, while Maldivian authorities say only three of the five had formal permission for deeper scientific dives.
- The Finnish team used rebreathers, underwater scooters and staged decompression to reach narrow, low-visibility passages and will conduct a final operational dive to remove deployed lines and document the cave for investigators.
- Next steps include repatriation of the remains, autopsies to be performed in Italy, forensic analysis of dive computers and footage, and witness interviews of people from the support vessel as prosecutors seek to reconstruct the last minutes and possible legal responsibility.