Five Italians die during cave scuba dive in Maldives
Five Italians have died in a scuba diving accident in the Maldives, the foreign ministry in Rome has said.
“The divers are believed to have died while attempting to explore caves at a depth of 50 metres (164ft),” the ministry said, adding that this happened in Vaavu Atoll.
Four of the divers were part of a University of Genoa team, including professor of ecology Monica Montefalcone, her daughter and two researchers.
The Maldives’ military said one body had been found in a cave about 60m underwater, and the other four divers were believed to be also there.
It said divers with special equipment had been sent to the area, describing a search operation as a very high risk.
Italy’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that another 20 Italian nationals aboard the Duke of York yacht, from which the five divers took off, are unharmed and receiving assistance from the Embassy of Italy in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The ministry added that the yacht is waiting for weather conditions to improve before returning to the Maldives’ capital, Male.
The incident is believed to be the worst single diving accident in the tiny Indian Ocean nation, a popular tourist destination because of its string of coral islands.
The five Italians entered the water on Thursday morning, local media reported.
The crew of the diving vessel they were travelling on reported them missing when they failed to resurface later on.
Police said the weather was rough in the area, about 100km (62 miles) south of Male. A yellow warning was issued for passenger boats and fishermen.
The University of Genoa later named the victims as Montefalcone, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, who was also a student, research fellow Muriel Oddenino and marine biology graduate Federico Gualtieri.
The fifth victim has been named as boat operations manager and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti.
In a statement on X, the University of Genoa expressed its “deepest condolences” to the victims.
Italy’s ambassador to Sri Lanka, Damiano Francovigh, confirmed to broadcaster Sky TG24 that one body has been recovered while the other four had yet to be located.
He added that recovery operations remain complicated due to current weather conditions and will resume on 16 May.
Monica Montefalcone’s husband, Carlo Sommacal, told Italian daily La Repubblica that his wife was “among the best divers in the world”.
Sommacal described Montefalcone as “prepared and meticulous”, adding that she “would never have put our daughter’s [Giorgia’s] life or that of others at risk”.
“Maybe one of them had issues, maybe with the oxygen tanks, I have no idea,” he added.
The causes of the accident remain to be confirmed but dive master Maurizio Uras has suggested “oxygen toxicity” might have been a contributing factor.
“It’s a phenomenon that can happen when you dive very deep,” he told Italian news agency Agi: “If the oxygen mix is inadequate, oxygen can become toxic at certain depths.”
He added: “Weather conditions are also an important factor and we have to consider that the Indian Ocean is not the Mediterranean, which is relatively calm.
“There [in the Indian Ocean], there are strong currents which I imagine can pull from one side to the other. A real danger.”
Diving and snorkelling accidents are relatively rare in the Maldives, although several fatalities have been reported in recent years.
Last December, an experienced British female diver drowned in a scuba incident off the island resort of Ellaidhoo. Her husband died five days later after falling ill.
In 2024, a Japanese lawmaker died while snorkelling in Lhaviyani Atoll.
