Three Finnish cave-diving specialists arrived in the Maldives on Sunday to help the coast guard map a new plan to retrieve the bodies of four Italian divers lost in an underwater cave, officials said, after a Maldivian military diver died in an initial recovery effort. The group of five Italian divers is believed to have died while exploring a cave at a depth of about 50 meters (160 feet) in Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, according to Italy’s Foreign Ministry.
Maldives presidential spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef told the Associated Press that the search had been suspended after Mohamed Mahudhee, a member of the Maldivian National Defense Force, died of underwater decompression sickness on Saturday following a dangerous mission to reach the missing divers. Mahudhee was buried with military honors that night in a funeral attended by President Mohamed Muizzu, who had been briefed on the rescue plan during a visit to the search site on Friday.
The missing individuals have been 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. Benedetti’s body was recovered near the mouth of the cave on Thursday; the remaining four are believed to have entered deeper into the cave. The University of Genoa said in a statement that Montefalcone and Oddenino were in the Maldives on an official scientific mission to study marine environments and climate change impacts, but the scuba diving activity during which the accident occurred was undertaken privately.
The recreational diving limit in the Maldives is 30 meters (98 feet); the dive far exceeded that threshold, and officials later determined that standard recreational gear was used rather than technical equipment required for cave diving at depth. Orietta Stella, a lawyer for the Italian tour operator Albatros Top Boat, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Saturday that the company “did not know” the group planned to descend beyond 30 meters and “would have never allowed it” because such a dive requires special permission from Maldivian maritime authorities.
Carlo Sommacal, Montefalcone’s husband and Giorgia’s father, said he had doubts about the accident. “Something must have happened down there,” he said in an interview with Italian television. He described his wife as a careful and highly disciplined diver who would never put her daughter or other colleagues at risk.
The Italian Foreign Ministry described the cave as divided into three large chambers connected by narrow passages. Recovery teams explored two of the three chambers on Friday, but the search was limited by considerations over oxygen and decompression. Rough weather repeatedly hampered rescue efforts, the ministry said. Approximately 20 other Italian nationals on the same expedition aboard the vessel “Duke of York” were reported safe. The Maldives Tourism Ministry subsequently suspended the operating license of the vessel pending an investigation.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said everything possible would be done to bring the victims home and offered condolences for the death of the Maldivian diver.