One of the five divers who drowned in an underwater cave in the Maldives, published multiple studies on dives at depths of 260 feet – deepening the mystery on her funeral day about why she and her daughter decided to go down without proper equipment.
Monica Montefalcone, 51, and daughter Giorgia Sommacal were two of the five Italian divers who vanished during a dive inside a Maldives cave 164 feet underwater May 14.
Their funerals were held in Genoa, Italy, in front of a crowd of some 2,000 people Saturday at San Francesco di Pegli church in Genoa, packed with Montefalcone and Sommacal’s family, friends, university students and professors.
“I feel a great emptying, a deep disbelief,” priest Don Corrado told the church. In our neighborhood Monica and Giorgia were well known and loved.”
“I don’t know if I will have the strength to caress and kiss those coffins for the last goodbye,” Carlo Sommacal the paper before entering. “I want to remember them with their radiant, sunny smile, full of life.”
The bodies, laid out in two light-colored wooden coffins covered with a sea of white roses, were brought to the church, where a photograph of the mother and daughter in front of the sapphire sea they loved so much was displayed.
Since 2003, Montefalcone had published at least four scientific papers in international journals involving the collection of sediment from the bottom of the ocean floor and other marine samples in the Maldives, at depths between 210 and 270 feet, Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera uncovered this week.
That’s even deeper than the Vaavu Atoll cave where the group lost their lives, which reaches maximum depths of 200 feet.
It comes as the Maldives government now says three of the five divers – Montefalcone and University of Genoa researchers Muriel Oddenino and Federico Gualtieri – did in fact have permits to go down to 160 feet to sample coral.
The revelation comes as the blame game between Maldives authorities, the University of Genoa and boat operator Albatros intensifies, against the backdrop of a culpable homicide investigation by Roman prosecutors.
The names of the other two divers however, Sommacal and dive instructor Gianluca Benedetti, were not on the marine research permit the scientists had submitting to the island nation back in February.
“They had submitted a specific research proposal – focusing on soft corals and the composition of the Maldivian reef systems – to the Department of Marine Research, which gave the green light,” Hussain Shareef, spokesman for Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu told the paper.
“The main problem is that it was a cave dive and their research proposal made no mention of it.”
Corals need sunlight and wouldn’t be found deep in underwater caves, though it might survive near the entrance.
Montefalcone was well-known to the Maldives government — since 2006, she had published at least 34 underwater studies on the country and applied for research permits through the University of Genoa’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences.
“My wife certainly didn’t go there to sunbathe on the beach,” husband Carlo Sommacal told the newspaper, vindicated. “She possessed exceptional expertise.”
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