Five Italian divers who died in the Maldives last Thursday may have taken a wrong turn inside an underwater cave system and panicked after finding no clear exit, according to the elite recovery team that retrieved their bodies.
The bodies of Monica Montefalcone, 52, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 20, Muriel Oddenino, 31, and Federico Gualtieri, 31, were discovered on Monday near the entrance to the third and final chamber of the cave system in Vaavu Atoll, at a depth of about 165 feet.
Their diving instructor, Gianluca Benedetti, 44, was found close to the entrance of the same chamber.
According to La Repubblica, the cave network consists of a first chamber connected to a second chamber by a corridor roughly 100 feet long and about 10 feet wide.
From the second chamber, the corridor entrance is obscured by a sandbank, while just above it lies the opening to a third chamber that ends in a dead end.
Investigators believe the group of Italian divers mistakenly entered the third chamber and panicked after realizing there was no escape route, before running low on oxygen, according to Finnish divers deployed by the research organization DAN Europe to locate them.
“There was no way out,” said Laura Marroni, CEO of DAN Europe, in comments to La Repubblica.
Marroni added that if the divers had taken a wrong turn, “it would have been very complex to return, especially with the little supply of air.”
The group was using standard 12-litre oxygen cylinders, which are not typically suitable for depths beyond 100 feet, leaving them with limited time to safely turn back.
“We’re talking about 10 minutes, maybe even less,” said Marroni.
“Realizing that the route is not right, and having little air left while trying to back out can be terrifying,” she added.
Monica Montefalcone, 51, Giorgia’s mother, was also among those who died.
“Then you breathe quickly and the air runs out,” one source noted, describing the rapid depletion of oxygen under stress.
All five Italian victims were experienced divers, and the exact circumstances that led them to attempt such a deep dive without appropriate equipment remain under investigation.
Elite Finnish divers recovered technical equipment from the site, including GoPro cameras worn by some members of the group. Investigators hope the footage will help clarify what happened in what is being described as one of the worst diving tragedies in the Maldives.
Federico Gualtieri, 31, was among those who died in last Thursday’s diving tragedy in the Maldives.
All five victims were ultimately found inside an underwater cave system.
The final two bodies were recovered on Wednesday, officially bringing the search and recovery operation to a close.
A sixth person also died during the mission: military diver Sgt. Major Mohamed Mahudhee, who suffered fatal underwater decompression sickness on Saturday while attempting to locate the victims.
Despite being regarded as “one of the best” divers in the Maldivian National Defence Force, he was not trained for the specific demands of the recovery operation, according to his military mentor Shafraz Naeem.
