A former military diver who is familiar with the Maldives cave where the five Italian tourists lost their lives described what the divers likely endured before the tragedy.
The accident occurred on Thursday (May 14), when the five tourists failed to resurface after diving in the waters of Vaavu Atoll.
The group consisted of a diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, 42, Monica Montefalcone, 52; Giorgia Sommacal, 22; Muriel Oddenino, 31; and Federico Gualtieri, 31.
Highlights
- Five Italian tourists lost their lives diving in the Maldives’ Vaavu Atoll cave, with four bodies found in the pitch-black third chamber.
- Former military diver said tourists lacked training and proper technical gear, making the dive "an accident waiting to happen."
- Nitrogen narcosis likely impaired the divers’ judgment in the deep cave, causing disorientation underwater.
Image credits: Project Seagrass/Facebook
The body of Benedetti was discovered on Friday near the entrance to the Thinwana Kandu cave.
Three days later, the bodies of the rest of the group were found by a team of Finnish and Maldivian divers at the bottom of the cave's third chamber, which is in complete darkness.
Sergeant Major Mohammed Mahudhee, a diver for the Maldives coast guard, also lost his life from decompression sickness after assisting in the search operation.
Image credits: Giorgia Sommacal/Facebook
The Vaavu Atoll cave is divided into three chambers, which are all connected by narrow passageways.
Shafraz Naeem, an expert diver who knew Sergeant Major Mahudhee, said he is familiar with the site but has never dared to enter the third “unforgiving” chamber.
“I have visited those caves countless times. There is no current. They swam into that third cave. They chose to go in there,” Naeem, a former military diver for the Maldives National Defense Force with 30 years of technical diving experience, told the Daily Mail.
Image credits: ABC News
“I believe the instructor intentionally swam away from the group. Maybe he legged it up before he ran out of air. The rest of the group d*ed in that third chamber and Benedetti d*ed in the passageway trying to get out.”
He described the extreme depth of the cave as posing risks that make it perilous even for skilled divers like him.
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“It is closed, pitch-black and you can only see where you shine the light. If something goes wrong, you cannot shoot up to the surface like you can in open dives.
“You are stopped and restricted and, at that depth of below 181 ft (55 m), it is just completely dangerous.”
Naeem, who has done more than 50 dives in the area where the group lost their lives, said they were ill-equipped and lacked proper training to explore the cave, making the underwater expedition “an accident waiting to happen.”
Image credits: Il Mattino
Instead of having technical diving equipment, the five tourists were found to only be carrying recreational gear used to dive down to 98 ft (30 m).
“People who are not trained in cave diving or without proper equipment, like this, tend to get knocked by nitrogen narcosis. Then things start to spiral down from there and get worse,” the expert diver told the Daily Mail.
Image credits: Muriel Oddenino/Facebook
Naeem suggested the tourists may have run into trouble in the pitch-black depths and, without ropes to bring them to the surface or the appropriate equipment, either drowned or suffered from nitrogen narcosis before losing their lives.
Also known as depth intoxication, nitrogen narcosis is a change in consciousness and neuromuscular function caused by breathing compressed nitrogen at deep underwater levels.
According to the Divers Alert Network (DAN), the most common symptoms include impaired judgment, difficulty concentrating, drowsiness, and a feeling of euphoria. Divers often don’t realize they are mentally impaired, which can lead them to make dangerous decisions.
Image credits: Federico Gualtieri/Facebook
The former military diver further claimed that tour operator Albatros Top Boats, which organized the fatal expedition, is known locally for breaking the government's diving regulations establishing a maximum depth for tourists.
“The owner doesn't dive herself but the boat managers are known to go deep, breaking the 98 ft (30 m) regulations,” he said.
The Italian tour operator has denied authorizing or having knowledge of the deep dive, lawyer Orietta Stella told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
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According to Stella, the tour company was unaware that the group would descend beyond the recreational diving limit of 98 ft (30 m).
Two of the Italian divers, Professor Monica Montefalcone and research fellow Muriel Oddenino, were in the Maldives looking at the impact of climate change on biodiversity, as per the BBC.
Image credits: CNBC-TV18
Mohamed Hossain Shareef, a Maldivian government spokesperson, told the outlet that the pair had a permit for their scientific work, allowing them to descend to 164 ft (50 m).
The tragedy is believed to be the worst single diving accident in the small Indian Ocean country.
An investigation to establish the cause of the accident is ongoing. The vessel that took the tourists to the cave had its license suspended by the Maldives’ Ministry of Tourism.
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