Maldives diving tragedy: Five bodies of missing Italians recovered, theories around cause of deaths swirl

The five Italian divers whose bodies were recovered in the Maldives may have gotten lost in the underwater cave system, rescuers say.

The group of Italian tourists vanished during a cave diving expedition in the remote Vaavu Atoll, about 100 kilometres south of the capital Malé, triggering an urgent high-risk search operation involving specialist divers and military crews.

The first body, that of 44-year-old Gianluca Benedetti, was recovered on the first day of the search at the cave’s entrance.

The other bodies — that of Monica Montefalcone, 52, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 20, Muriel Oddenino, 31, and Federico Gualtieri 31 — were found on Monday and recovered across Tuesday and Wednesday by rescue divers.

They were found in the cave’s third chamber at a depth of about 50 metres.

Each attempt to retrieve the bodies reportedly lasted about three hours.

The rescue was conducted by Dan Europe, who brought in Finnish divers to help with the recovery mission.

“The bodies were found together in an area of the cave. Based on the cave’s layout, they may have got lost,” the company’s chief executive Laura Marroni told AFP.

Inside Vaavu Atoll, also known as “shark cave”, a corridor connects the first and second chambers.

The corridor is about 30 metres long and 3 metres wide.

Once inside the second chamber, access to the corridor is hidden by a sandbank, above which is the entrance to the third chamber - a dead end.

It is believed that the group entered the third chamber and, upon realising it was a dead end, panicked.

“There was no way out,” Ms Marroni told La Repubblica.

She added that if they had taken a wrong turn, “it would have been very complex to return, especially with the little supply of air.”

“We’re talking about 10 minutes, maybe even less,” she said.

“Realising that the road is not right, and having little air maybe after backing down, it terrifies (you).

“Then you breathe quickly and the air goes down.”

The 12-litre oxygen cylinders used by the group were not suited to depths below 30 metres.

The group of Italian divers, reportedly led by Mr Benedetti, were experienced and investigations are now underway to determine why they were not appropriately equipped for the dive.

Other reports indicate that Monica Montefalcone, a professor at the University of Geneva, was wearing a short wetsuit, which is not suitable for a dive of such a depth.

Finnish divers found GoPro cameras during the rescue which will hopefully provide more information into the circumstances of their deaths.

It is believed that it is the single worst diving accident in the Maldives.

A Maldivian rescue diver, identified as Staff Sergeant Mohamed Mahdhee, also died on Saturday during the search for the missing divers.

A government spokesperson told the BBC that he was taken to hospital in a critical condition and later died.

“Eight rescue divers went into the water today. When they surfaced, they realised Mr Mahdhee didn’t come up,” they said.

The other divers found Mr Mahdee blacked out when they went to find him.