Five Italians died this Thursday in the Maldives in a diving accident while exploring a cave 50 meters deep in the Vaavu atoll, according to the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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The Maldives army continued on Friday with the search to recover the bodies. So far, only one body has been found, still unidentified, according to the Italian public television RAI.
The divers were exploring the cave when they disappeared, according to Mohamed Hussain Shareef, spokesperson for the presidency of the Maldives. The five victims were experienced divers.
The Maldivian authorities are still investigating the incident and its causes, and the Italian Embassy in Colombo (the capital of Sri Lanka, with jurisdiction over the Maldives) has contacted the families of the victims to provide them with the necessary consular assistance.
The victims are three women and two men: Monica Montefalcone, a 51-year-old researcher at the University of Genoa; her 23-year-old daughter, Giorgia Sommacal; the researcher specialized in natural sciences and marine ecology Muriel Oddenino; the marine biology researcher Federico Gualtieri; and Gianluca Benedetti, operations director of the company that organized the expedition.
Carlo Sommacal, Monica Montefalcone’s husband, told the newspaper La Repubblica that his wife was “one of the best divers in the world.” Sommacal described her as a “prepared and meticulous” person. “She would never have put our daughter’s [Giorgia] life or anyone else’s in danger,” he emphasized. “Maybe one of them had some problem, perhaps with the oxygen tanks; I don’t know,” he added.
The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported in a statement that another 20 Italian citizens aboard the yacht Duke of York — from which the five deceased divers departed — are unharmed and are receiving assistance from the Italian embassy in Colombo. The Ministry added that the vessel will return to Malé, the capital of the Maldives, as soon as weather conditions improve, which were already adverse at the time of the accident.
In the Maldives (500,000 inhabitants), a popular destination for divers from around the world, there had never been a diving accident with so many fatalities. Still, such accidents are not uncommon in the Asian country. Last December, a British diver drowned while diving off a resort on the island of Ellaidhoo. In 2024, a Japanese lawmaker died while snorkeling in the Lhaviyani atoll, according to the BBC.