A military rescuer from the Maldives National Defense Forces died today, 16 May 2026, while searching for the bodies of missing Italian divers in the underwater caves of Vaavu Atoll. He is the sixth victim of a tragedy that began two days ago, when a group of five expert Italian researchers lost their lives during a dive at a depth of over 50 metres, a depth that Maldivian law expressly prohibits for recreational diving. Only one of the five, Gianluca Benedetti, has had the body recovered so far. In the next few hours we will try to understand not only where the other four are, but also how it could have happened: the investigations are focusing on the presence or absence of the permits necessary for a dive at those depths, on any malfunctions of the tanks and on the possible physical causes of the divers’ deaths, from oxygen toxicity to nitrogen narcosis.
What we know: the facts
On Thursday 14 May, 5 Italian divers lost their lives during a dive in the underwater caves of the Shark Cave, over 50 meters deep in the Vaavu atoll, about 65 km from Malé, the capital of the Maldives.
The victims are Monica Montefalcone (51 years old), professor of Ecology at the University of Genoa, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal (23 years old), the Piedmontese researcher Muriel Oddenino and the two diving instructors Gianluca Benedetti and Federico Gualtieri. For local authorities it is one of the worst diving accidents in the history of the Maldives. The only Italian body recovered so far is that of Gianluca Benedetti.
A sixth victim is now added to this toll: a sergeant major of the National Defense Forces of the Maldives, involved this morning in the recovery operations of the four still missing, was transported in critical condition to the hospital in Malé, where he died.
Recovery operations continue with 8 Maldivian divers, while the Malé government has requested international assistance. Two Italian experts should also join the operations, one specialized in deep-sea rescue and one in cave diving.
Meanwhile, the license of the Duke of York, the vessel from which the accident victims dived, has been suspended indefinitely.
What we don’t know yet
At the center of the investigations into the death of the 5 Italian divers, conducted by the Maldivian police and in parallel by the Rome Prosecutor’s Office, there are three big question marks.
The first concerns the depth of the dive: Maldivian regulations prohibit recreational diving beyond 30 metres, but the group had gone to over 50 meters (some sources speak of 60). The 30 meter limit can only be exceeded with special authorizations, for example for scientific or documentary expeditions. The University of Genoa, for which Monica Montefalcone worked, has already specified that that dive was not part of the activities of the official scientific expedition, but was carried out in a personal capacity. The Maldivian police will have to clarify whether the expedition in which the 5 Italians died was organized for scientific purposes and whether the local Ministry of Tourism signed an exemption or written authorization to allow divers to go beyond the 30 meter depth limit.
The second node concerns the causes of deathso at the moment all hypotheses are still being examined by investigators. Experts evaluate the possibility of one oxygen toxicity (due to an excess of oxygen at great depth due to the gas mixture breathed through the cylinders), of one nitrogen narcosis (an effect of this gas that appears beyond 30-40 meters of depth), but also of sudden currentsfrom the loss of orientation inside the cave and finally of the possible incorrect composition of the mixture breathed by the divers. To clarify, the analysis of the cylinders, the data from the wrist computers worn by the divers and the autopsies will be fundamental.
