DAN (Divers Alert Network) Europe announced that specially trained divers have recovered the bodies of two of the four missing SCUBA divers in an underwater cave in the Maldives. Recovery operations will continue tomorrow to hopefully recover the remaining two bodies.
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Five divers recently died while exploring the cave near the Vaavu Atoll. The cave was over 160 feet deep, and there is no official information about what happened quite yet.
The deceased include five Italian citizens. Search-and-rescue divers recovered one body near the mouth of the underwater cave on the day the group failed to surface. The other four divers have been missing until Monday, when DAN says they found all four and subsequently began making plans for recovery.
Tragically, a sixth person, Sgt. Major Mohamed Mahudhee, a Maldivian military diver, died from “the bends” (underwater decompression sickness) during an attempted recovery mission. Critics call this first recovery mission a “preventable disaster.”
[RELATED: 5 Italian SCUBA Divers Die in Underwater Cave in the Maldives]
“DAN Europe confirms that two of the four victims involved in the Dhekunu Kandu diving tragedy have now been successfully recovered during today’s operational phase of the international search & recovery mission currently underway in the Maldives,” DAN Europe wrote in a press release. “During the operation, the team conducted again a deep penetration dive inside the cave system using advanced equipment including Rebreathers, DPVs (underwater scooters), and redundant life-support systems.”
See DAN’s latest update about the recovery of two of the missing divers’ bodies below.
This situation is still developing, and details may change.
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