GROSSETO. «She wasn’t breathing: you couldn’t see the bubbles». Mauro Vaccarone, doyen of Italian divers, last September celebrated his 50 years of diving since that day in 1973 in Alassio, when his father made him experience the thrill of breathing underwater with a mystral and a double tank that charged to 150 atmospheres. And at Formiche (at Formica Grande, to be precise), in whose waters he was extracted on Saturday now – it seems – lifeless, in 2020 he celebrated the 1,500th descent of his long career.
What happened from the shore to the site of the fatal dive was explained to the coast guard soldiers that same afternoon by the other divers who were with him, who were returned to Castiglione della Pescaia and Talamone.
What happened after he went down into the depths may be clarified – perhaps in the next few hours – by the tests on his body, which is in the Misericordia morgue at the disposal of the judicial authorities.
What happened from the moment he was seen on the ocean floor is described by some of the divers who helped recover him, asking to remain anonymous.
Vaccarone, champion of the environment (primarily the marine one, obviously), was a lover and habitué of the waters of the Maremma. Everyone knew him; by sight, if nothing else, or even by fame. Registered with Fias (the Italian Federation of Underwater Activities) when patents were still issued in booklet format (and not in plastic), when photographing underwater was half art and half technique, he had established himself as a point of reference to which new generations of seabed enthusiasts watched with admiration.
«Tanks, mask, wetsuit, weights, fins, respirator… everything seemed in order», confirms those who saw him on the seabed, 40 meters deep and in perfect visibility conditions (precisely one of the characteristics that makes Formiche a divers’ paradise): “It looked like he was taking photographs.”
The slight rocking of the body, as if it had been abandoned to the delicate current, but even more the lack of air bubbles triggered the alarm. It was at that moment that the ascent towards the surface began: it is difficult to estimate the time necessary to return to the surface of the water. Upon surfacing, Vaccarone “was pulled aboard the tender, where they tried to make him recover”, they add.
Then the intervention of the coast guard coordinated by the Port Authority of Livorno, the race towards the rock, the flight of Pegaso 2, the resuscitation attempts; unfortunately useless.
Even yesterday, as throughout Saturday, the owners of the diving company – long-time friends of Vaccarone and his family – were understandably upset, entrenched in pain. A pain that the truth about the last moments of the diver’s life, the answer that could arrive in the next few hours, will certainly not be able to alleviate.
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