Italian divers battle near-zero visibility in search for minister's husband missing in Lake Vico
Luigi Cavallari, 84, disappeared after diving into Lake Vico on Saturday afternoon. Rescuers with specialist equipment have been searching continuously for over 24 hours, hampered by extremely poor underwater visibility.
What happened
On the afternoon of Saturday 27 June, Luigi Cavallari, 84, dived into Lake Vico from a small boat where he was with his wife, Italian Family Minister Eugenia Roccella. After briefly resurfacing and saying he felt unwell, he vanished beneath the water. The minister herself raised the alarm around 17:00.
Search operations
Rome fire brigade divers arrived immediately. During the night, specialist teams from Naples joined, and at about 06:00 on 28 June divers from Florence deployed remotely operated vehicles, sonar and thermal cameras. The search has been uninterrupted. The Florence teams concluded their mission around 10:30, while a Guardia di Finanza divers' unit was expected to reinforce the effort.
The search is particularly complex because of the setting: visibility is already very low at the water's surface, and the deeper you go the more it drops, approaching zero.
- Cavallari dives from boat, resurfaces briefly and raises alarm before disappearing
- Rome fire brigade divers begin initial search operations
- Overnight: Naples specialist divers arrive on scene
- Florence specialist divers arrive with ROVs, sonar and thermal cameras
- Florence units conclude intervention; Guardia di Finanza divers team expected
Conditions
Vice prefect Andrea Nino Caputo described the lake's visibility as "near zero" already at the surface and said temperatures drop rapidly with depth. Thermal shock is suspected as a possible cause of Cavallari's distress, given the sudden transition from the afternoon heat to cold water. Teams are using both divers and instrumentation to try to locate him.
Reactions
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her closeness to minister Roccella in what she called "painful hours". Political forces across the spectrum have sent messages of solidarity. Cavallari, an engineer, was well known in the family's circle.
