A diver from the Divers Alert Network (DAN) Europe who was a part of the team that recovered the bodies of the Italian divers who died said that the five Italian divers who went cave diving in Vaavu Alimathaa did not use the appropriate diving gear and that they did not have guide rope either.

While being interviewed by Italian newspaper la Repubblica, Finnish diver Sami Paakkarinen stated that the bodies were found in one very deep spot within the cave.

According to Paakkarinen, they believe that the divers died due to "human error". However, he said that the investigation team will be the ones coming to a conclusion regarding the tragedy.

He also said that questions arose as to why they dove into such a dangerous and deep cave without the appropriate safety equipment.

Paakkarinen went on to say that when diving into such a narrow and deep cave, a "guide rope" or "diving reel" is to be used in highlighting the path, but the Italian divers had not used such a piece of equipment.

"Those who cave dive will know that conducting such dives without a guide rope is not a good idea. Sadly, the reality of such tragedies when diving into caves like that is due to one's own mistakes," said Paakkarinen.

The bodies of 52 year old Monica Montefalcone, her 20 year old daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 31 year old Muriel Oddenino and 31 year old Federico Gualtieri were found on Monday at the entrance of the third and also the last section of the caves, which were around 165 feet (50 meters) deep. Two bodies were recovered on Wednesday and the other two bodies were recovered on Thursday.

The body of their Italian diving instructor 44 year old Gianluca Benedetti was found at the entrance of the same part of the cave. The tragedy occurred on 14th May.

Their bodies have been repatriated to Italy, with the country's media stating that their postmortems will be conducted in the coming days.

The divers who took part in the recovery said that after they had entered the path leading out of the second section of the cave experiences a lack of visibility due to a sandbank, with them theorizing that the divers may have died due to the lack of visibility that may have occurred, sending them into a panic and them proceeding into a dead end in the cave, subsequently losing their way.

After the four-day search and recovery operation, the recovery team has compiled and publicized a preliminary report based on their findings.

The report states that experienced divers were not given permission from relevant parties to give out instructions nor were they given special training regarding cave diving, along with a lack of the appropriate diving equipment.

The report also states that as cave diving is a dangerous activity, it is something that must not be done unless those involved have been properly trained and they have the full resources to conduct such a dive.