The diving tragedy in the Maldives, which claimed the lives of five Italian divers and a Maldivian navy diver, has prompted renewed warnings from experts about the dangers of cave diving without proper training, planning and specialised equipment.
The Divers Alert Network (DAN) confirmed on Thursday that all bodies had been recovered from the Dhekunu Kandu dive site in Vaavu atoll. 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 used closed-circuit rebreathers, underwater scooters and extensive backup equipment to recover the bodies over several days.
Investigations by Maldivian and Italian authorities are ongoing, but diving experts are calling for stricter adherence to established cave-diving safety protocols. British cave diver Jonathan Volanthen, who helped rescue 12 schoolboys from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018, highlighted that cave divers cannot make a direct ascent in an emergency, and that depth increases danger by requiring more gas and slower ascents to avoid decompression sickness.
American cave diving expert Edd Sorenson emphasised the importance of redundancy in equipment, including multiple tanks, regulators, lights and computers. He also warned that common open-water flutter kicks can stir up silt, reducing visibility to zero in an instant.
