The deaths of five Italian divers and a Maldivian navy diver in an underwater cave in the Maldives have prompted renewed warnings from experts about the dangers of cave diving without proper training, planning and specialised equipment.
The Divers Alert Network (DAN), which coordinated the search and recovery operation at the Dhekunu Kandu dive site in Vaavu atoll, confirmed all bodies had been recovered. The Italian victims were identified as Monica Montefalcone, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, Federico Gualtieri, Muriel Oddenino, and Gianluca Benedetti. Mohamed Mahudhee of the Maldivian national defence force died from decompression sickness during a recovery mission.
DAN deployed a specialised rescue team including Finnish cave diving experts Sami Paakkarinen, Jenni Westerlund and Patrik Grönqvist, who recovered the bodies over several days using closed-circuit rebreathers, underwater scooters and extensive backup equipment.
Jonathan Volanthen, a British cave diver who helped rescue 12 schoolboys from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018, highlighted key risks. “If something goes wrong, you can’t simply head to the surface because there’s usually something that’s preventing that,” he said, noting that silt stirred up by divers can reduce visibility to zero. He added that greater depth increases gas consumption and the risk of decompression sickness.
American cave diving expert Edd Sorenson stressed the importance of redundancy in equipment and techniques. “We have a minimum of two tanks for your two regulators, we have a three-light minimum rule,” he said, also warning against flutter kicks that can instantly reduce visibility by disturbing sediment.
