Finnish divers join Maldives coastguard to remap search for 4 Italians

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Three Finnish divers arrived in the Maldives to help the coastguard remap the search for four Italian divers believed to be trapped deep inside an underwater cave in Vaavu Atoll, officials said Sunday, after the previous search was suspended following the death of a Maldivian rescue diver. Maldives presidential spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef said the new planning meeting brought the Finnish specialists into the effort.

Shareef said the pause in operations followed the death of Mohamed Mahudhee, a member of the Maldivian National Defense Force, who was transferred to a hospital in the capital and later died of underwater decompression sickness. Mahudhee was buried with military honors on Saturday night in a funeral attended by President Mohamed Muizzu, and Mahudhee had been part of the group that briefed the president on the rescue plan during a visit to the search site on Friday.

The Italians’ deaths were first reported as having occurred when a group of five divers entered the cave on Thursday at a depth of about 50 meters (160 feet), according to Italy’s Foreign Ministry. The same account said the Maldives’ recreational diving limit is 30 meters (98 feet), highlighting that the dives involved a deeper range than the local recreational threshold.

Maldivian authorities said the victims were identified as Monica Montefalcone, an associate professor of ecology at the University of Genoa; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri; researcher Muriel Oddenino; and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti. Officials said Benedetti’s body was recovered on Thursday near the cave’s mouth, while authorities believed the other four had entered the cave.

The Maldivian government said Montefalcone and Oddenino had been in the Maldives on an official scientific mission tied to monitoring marine environments and studying the effects of climate change on tropical biodiversity. University of Genoa officials said the scuba diving activity during which the accident occurred was “undertaken privately,” and that Sommacal and Gualtieri were not involved in the scientific mission.

Carlo Sommacal, Montefalcone’s husband and Giorgia’s father, told Italian television that he had doubts about how the accident happened and said “something must have happened down there” given his wife and daughter’s experience. In his comments to Italian media, he described Montefalcone as a careful and highly disciplined diver who, he said, would never put her daughter or colleagues at risk.

Italian officials said the deaths remained under investigation, and rough weather had repeatedly hampered rescue efforts. The search operations on Saturday involved eight local divers working in shifts to locate the bodies, and initial teams had already dived to identify and mark the entrance to the cave system where the Italians disappeared, the Italian Foreign Ministry said.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in remarks reported by AP that “everything possible would be done to bring the victims home.” He also offered condolences for Mahudhee’s death during rescue efforts.

Separately, the Italian tour operator that managed the diving trip denied authorizing or knowing about the deep dive that exceeded local limits, its lawyer told Corriere della Sera on Saturday. Orietta Stella, representing Albatros Top Boat, said the operator “did not know” the group planned to descend beyond 30 meters, which she said required special permission from Maldivian maritime authorities and that the operator “would have never allowed it.”

Stella also said the dive went far beyond what was planned for a scientific cruise focused on coral sampling at standard depths, and that the equipment used appeared to be standard recreational gear rather than technical equipment suited for deep cave diving. She did not say the equipment details involved in the dive were technically suitable; experts in the report described cave diving as highly technical, with visibility problems and the inability to head straight up at depth increasing risks.

Italy’s Foreign Ministry also said that about 20 other Italians on the same expedition aboard the vessel “Duke of York” were safe. Italy’s embassy in Colombo said it was providing assistance to people onboard, and that it had contacted the Red Crescent, which offered to deploy volunteers to help provide psychological aid. The Maldives Tourism Ministry said it suspended the operating license of the “Duke of York” pending an investigation.