Top divers join perilous mission to recover Italian tourists’ remains from Maldives sea cave

Divers prepare to search for the four missing Italian divers near Vaavu Atoll, Maldives, on May 15, 2026.
Maldives President’s Media Division/AP

International cave divers have arrived in the Maldives to step up the search for the remains of four Italians who died while scuba diving in the island paradise, a day after a military officer lost his life in the recovery attempt.

Three Finnish divers from the Divers Alert Network, a global scuba safety group, touched down in the Maldives on Sunday and were on their way to meet the local coast guard team to work on a new strategy to complete the mission, said the Maldives’ chief government spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef.

“They were recommended by Italy and have completed deep dives and cave dives around the world,” Shareef told CNN.

A fourth diving expert is expected to join the Finnish team on Sunday, as is specialist equipment from Australia and the United Kingdom.

Five Italian divers died after exploring the Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, prompting the multinational rescue mission. They were on a scuba diving expedition with another 20 Italian nationals, aboard the Duke of York vessel, according to Italy’s foreign ministry.

Diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti’s body was found at the mouth of the cave, leading authorities to believe the other four remain inside, Shareef said.

They are Monica Montefalcone, an associate professor of ecology at the University of Genoa; her daughter Giorgia Sommacal; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri; and researcher Muriel Oddenino.

Muriel Oddenino, Federico Gualtieri, Monica Montefalcone, Gialunca Benedetti and Giorgia Sommacal.
Facebook/University of Genoa/Albatros Top Boat/Instagram

The attempt to retrieve their bodies has already claimed another life, underscoring the peril and complexity of the recovery effort.

Senior military diver Sgt. Mohamed Mahudhee died on Saturday during a second rescue mission into the cave, which at its deepest point is 70 meters (230 feet) below the surface (about as deep as a 20-story building is tall), and 200 meters long.

“He was one of the most senior divers, which shows just how challenging this dive is,” Shareef said.

“He was diving in a pair, as per protocol, and returning to the surface when his partner realized something was wrong and the rest of the team jumped in to try and save him.”

Mahudhee was laid to rest in full military honors at a funeral ceremony in Malé, where thousands paid their respects including President Mohamed Muizzu, tourism and military officials, and foreign ambassadors.

Challenging conditions

Each rescue dive is limited to around three hours due to oxygen and decompression requirements, Shareef said.

During Saturday’s rescue operation two divers marked the cave entrance by shooting a balloon up to the water’s surface. This allowed remaining crew to swim directly toward it and maximize their time inside.

However, conditions are extremely challenging, with unpredictable strong currents, narrow passageways leading to a vast chamber, and pitch-black darkness throughout, Shareef said.

“You have to be an expert for this level of diving,” he added.

A coast guard boat and other vessels deployed to search for the four missing Italian divers near Alimathaa Island, Vaavu Atoll, Maldives, on May 15, 2026.
Maldives President’s Media Division via AP

Before resurfacing, the divers must stay in shallow water to decompress after ascending from the cave’s depths.

Authorities believe Mahudhee, a member of the national defense force, died from complications during this process.

The Maldives has extensive water safety protocols and expert divers, Shareef said, noting the archipelago’s ocean territory is around 3,000 times larger than its landmass.

Carlo Sommacal, Montefalcone’s husband and Giorgia’s father, was unsure what could have caused the accident, saying that “something must have happened down there” given his wife and daughter’s extensive experience.

Speaking to Italian TV, he described Montefalcone as a careful and disciplined diver who would never put her daughter or other colleagues at risk, the Associated Press reported.

He recalled her telling him at times: “This one I can do, you can’t” and how his wife survived the 2004 tsunami while diving off Kenya, the outlet said.

Italian connection

The Maldives is highly reliant on tourism, welcoming more than 2 million visitors in 2025, according to its tourism ministry, compared with a resident population of 500,000.

Italy-based diving tour operator George Corbin is credited with introducing tourism to the former British colony in 1972, bringing journalists and photographers to the Indian Ocean islands as a “Robinson Crusoe” paradise.

Since then, Italy has consistently ranked among the Maldives’ largest tourism markets.

“Italy has a very special relationship with us when it comes to tourism, and we’ve been great friends in our hospitality for many years,” Shareef said.

“Local people are devastated not just because this is the biggest diving accident ever in this country but also because they are Italians.”

The Maldivian and Italian governments have been in communication “at the highest level,” with Muizzu sending his “deepest condolences” to Italian President Sergio Mattarella and the families of the victims, Shareef said.

Rome’s envoy to the country arrived in the capital Malé on Friday and joined rescuers aboard a coast guard ship, Italy’s foreign ministry said.

An investigation is underway to determine what happened and the vessel’s license has been suspended pending the results, Shareef said. “Everything will be looked into,” he said.

Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani said everything possible would be done to return the victims’ remains, AP reported.

The University of Genoa paid tribute to the four missing divers, who either studied or taught at the institution.

“The sympathy of the entire university community goes out to the families, colleagues and students who shared their human and professional journey.”

The Italian tour operator that manages the Maldives diving trip denied authorizing or knowing about the deep dive that violated local limits, its lawyer told Italian daily Corriere della Sera on Saturday, according to an AP report.

Orietta Stella, representing Albatros Top Boat, said the operator “did not know” the group planned to descend beyond 30 meters. Crossing that threshold requires special permission from Maldivian maritime authorities and the tour operator “would have never allowed it,” she said.

The victims were experienced divers, but the equipment used appeared to be standard recreational gear rather than technical equipment suited for deep-cave diving, she said.

She also clarified that Albatros only marketed the cruise and neither owned the vessel nor employed the crew, which was hired locally.

CNN has contacted Albatros Top Boat for comment.

Maldives diver dies in operation to recover bodies of Italians from cave

Mohamed Mahudhee suffered decompression sickness after searching for scuba divers in Vaavu Atoll and died in hospital

Donna Ferguson

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A Maldivian military diver has died during a high-risk operation to recover the bodies of four of the Italian scuba divers who drowned while exploring a deep underwater cave in the Maldives.

The diver suffered underwater decompression sickness after searching for the bodies of the Italians who, according to Italy’s foreign ministry, had “apparently died while attempting to explore caves at a depth of 50 metres (164ft)”.

Mohamed Hussain Shareef, the Maldives presidential spokesperson, said that Mohamed Mahudhee, a member of the Maldivian national defence force, died of the sickness after being transferred to a hospital in the capital, Male.

“The death goes to show the difficulty of the mission,” he said.

Authorities had temporarily suspended attempts to recovery the bodies on Friday, owing to bad weather, but resumed the search on Saturday.

Mahudhee was part of the group of divers who had briefed the Maldives president, Mohamed Muizzu, on the rescue plan when he visited the search site on Friday.

In total, five Italians died in the scuba diving accident in Vaavu Atoll in the Indian Ocean archipelago on Thursday, Italy’s foreign ministry said.

The body of the fifth diver was found near the mouth of a cave shortly afterwards, and rescuers believe the remaining four divers are inside the same cave, which is divided into three large chambers connected by narrow passages.

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Marine biologist Federico Gualtieri has been identified as one of the five deceased. Photograph: UNPIXS/UGC

Working in pairs, a recovery team of eight divers had already explored two of the three chambers on Friday, but were hampered in their efforts to explore the third chamber.

The search resumed on Saturday, with two Italians – a deep-sea rescue expert and a cave diving expert – expected to join the recovery effort.

Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said the Italian government “will do everything possible to recover the bodies of our compatriots”.

The deceased have been identified as Monica Montefalcone, an associate ecology professor at the University of Genoa, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, marine biologist Federico Gualtieri, researcher Muriel Oddenino and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, whose body has been recovered.

The causes of their deaths is unknown and is being investigated.

Officials said the incident was the worst single diving accident in the Maldives, which has 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered across hundreds of miles of the Indian Ocean.

The University of Genoa said Montefalcone and Oddenino were on an official scientific mission to monitor marine environments and study the effects of the climate crisis on tropical biodiversity.

Montefalcone’s husband, Carlo Sommacal, said he believed an incident must have occurred and ruled out recklessness on his wife’s part. “Something must have happened,” he told Italian TV channel Rete 4.

He added that his wife, an experienced diver who had survived the Boxing Day tsunami in 2004 while diving off Kenya, “had two lives – one on land and one in her environment, the water”.

He described her as a disciplined diver who carefully weighed risks before each descent and recalled her telling him at times: “This one I can do, you can’t.”

Diving at 50 metres exceeds the maximum depth recommended for recreational divers by most scuba certifying agencies. Depths beyond 40 metres are considered technical diving, which requires specialised training and equipment. The recreational diving limit in the Maldives is 30 metres (98ft), and experts have warned that cave divers could easily become disoriented or lost, particularly when sediment clouds reduce visibility.

The Italians were passengers onboard a 36-metre luxury yacht the Duke of York, whose operating licence was suspended “indefinitely” on Saturday by the Maldivian ministry of tourism and civil aviation, pending the outcome of an investigation. A website link related to the ship was not working on Saturday and the owner of the yacht did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Guardian.

Shareef said investigators were looking into why the group went below the officially permitted depth of 30 metres.

Greenpeace Italia, the environmental organisation, paid tribute to Montefalcone as a passionate advocate for marine protection, and said it would miss “her professionalism and her advice immensely”. It recalled the “special light she had in her eyes” when speaking about the wonders of the sea and the importance of protecting them.