Coast Guard chief says advance planning and cave access setup allowed foreign team to recover bodies

Brigadier General Mohamed Saleem, Commandant of the Coast Guard, says the bodies of the missing tourists were recovered by foreign divers because the MNDF had already completed the necessary preparations for the operation.

Five Italian tourists went missing while diving in V. Alimatha on Thursday. The body of one diver was found the same day, while the remaining four were located inside the underwater cave on Monday.

Sergeant First Class Mohamed Mahudhy, who was part of the search effort, died during a dive on Saturday. The operation was suspended following his death and resumed on Monday.

Experienced foreign divers deployed by the Italian government also joined the search. Their involvement prompted public questions about why MNDF divers did not recover the bodies themselves. Saleem addressed the matter on PSM’s Raajje Miadhu programme.

He said the foreign divers had initially planned to conduct an orientation dive, but MNDF had already prepared the orientation, guidelines and access routes to the cave.

According to Saleem, the foreign divers travelled to Vaavu Atoll on Monday in a “very planned” manner with the MNDF team. They had originally intended to begin diving on Tuesday.

“However, soon it happened, the bodies of the tourists were found, and we had to make some of these preparations here, and we had already experienced the place in light of it,” Brigadier General Mohamed Saleem said.

Government spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef (Mundhu) said three Finnish experts, brought in at the request of the Italian government, will lead the recovery operation. Divers from MNDF, Maldives Police Service and two private companies will assist the Finnish team.

After the operation resumed, the bodies of the four remaining divers were found inside the Alimatha underwater cave on Monday.

Although the bodies have been located, the recovery process has not yet been completed. Additional dives are planned to retrieve the bodies from the cave.

The incident has drawn international attention, with growing calls for a full investigation into the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.