Five Italian divers die in Maldives cave disaster

on May 15, 2026
at 12:29 pm

Entrance to the cave-site (Shaff Naeem)

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UPDATED 16 May: Search-team diver with DCI dies

Five Italian scuba divers died after entering a cave system at a depth of around 55m yesterday (14 May), in what has become the deadliest single incident in Maldives’ diving history. Only one body has been recovered so far.

The deaths occurred during a dive from the Duke of York liveaboard, in Devana Kandu, a channel near Alimathaa island in the north-east of Vaavu Atoll, some 100km south of the capital Malé.

UPDATE 16 May: Search-team diver with DCI dies

Search and recovery operations for the remaining four divers resumed today (16 May) after being suspended because of poor sea conditions,

They concluded after penetration of the first two of three chambers of the cave with no more bodies found, but in the process one of the recovery divers, Sgt-Major Mohamed Mahudhee, had to be rushed to hospital with suspected decompression illness (DCI) and subsequently died.

Italian technical-diving specialists are reported to have been brought in to assist the Maldivian team. The only body recovered so far has been identified as that of Gianluca Benedetti, the diving instructor and liveaboard operations manager.

According to Italian press, he was found with an empty tank in the second chamber, though a spokesman for Maldives president Mohamed Muizzu, who visited the site yesterday, said that he had been found “near the mouth of the cave”.

A sixth diver, understood to be a female University of Genoa student, had reportedly been preparing to dive with the group but decided at the last moment not to enter the water. She has been helping with the investigation into the cause of the fatalities.

The university has stated that the dive was not part of its official scientific mission, while Prof Monica Montefalcone’s husband Carlo Sommacal has defended the divers’ experience and safety protocols and rejected suggestions of recklessness. He described his wife as a “disciplined diver” who carefully evaluated risks before dives.

Meanwhile the Maldives Ministry of Tourism has suspended the Duke of York liveaboard’s operating licence ‘indefinitely’ as a precautionary regulatory measure pending the outcome of the investigation. Italy has reportedly opened its own parallel investigation.

Four of the five divers on the week-long trip were connected with the University of Genoa. Associate professor of ecology and marine biologist Monica Montefalcone, 51, was accompanied by her 23-year-old daughter Giorgia Sommacal, who was studying biomedical engineering at the university.

Also in the group were Muriel Oddenino, 31, a research assistant in the same department as Montefalcone, and marine biology graduate 31-year-old Federico Gualtieri. He had recently completed a thesis on corals in the central Maldives atolls under Montefalcone’s supervision, and was also a diving instructor,

Monica Montefalcone

Giorgia Sommacal

Muriel Oddenino

Federico Gualtieri

The fifth diver was Gianluca Benedetti, a diving instructor from Padua and operations manager for Luxury Yacht Maldives and Albatros Top Boat, which operate the 36m Duke of York liveaboard on its central and southern atolls itineraries.

Gianluca Benedetti, whose body has been found

A yellow weather warning had been issued on the day of the dive, with rough seas and strong winds, and the site is associated with strong currents. These conditions were also said to have hampered the subsequent search for the missing divers by specialist divers with boats and aerial support.

Though the dive-group were said to have entered the water in the morning, the alarm was raised only at 1.45pm, suggesting that they might have been prepared for a long, deep dive. Details have yet to be released about the equipment they were using.

The Duke of York caters for technical and rebreather divers as well as those diving within the official 30m Maldives depth limit.
The Duke of York liveaboard (Luxury Yachts Maldives)
“I dived this cave a number of times and with proper equipment and gas,” well-known Maldives diving instructor Shaff Naeem has commented. “The entrance is between 55 and 58m. The cave goes inside to approximately 100m and forks and goes deeper.

“Not a dive to be done on normal air or without experience in technical diving or cave training.”

One body

The Maldives Coast Guard, the maritime arm of the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF), has been able to recover only one body so far, found inside the system at 6.13pm yesterday.

It told Italian news agency ANSA that the other four divers were “believed to be inside the same cave, which extends to a depth of approximately 60m”. The system is thought to extend as far as 260m.
Google Maps image of the incident area – the island at the top is Alimathaa (MDNF)

Montefalcone, an expert on seagrass ecosystems, was known to the Italian public through her TV appearances. She had contributed to a number of scientific papers on corals and hydrozoans in the Maldives, but there has been no official comment on whether the fatal dive was recreational, exploratory or research-related.

ANSA reported that she had been in the Maldives co-ordinating a research project with colleagues but that, according to initial reports, the cave-dive had not been related to that project.

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

Police are investigating the deaths and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Italian embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka are monitoring the situation, with the latter providing assistance to relatives of the divers.

Source: https://divernet.com/scuba-news/health-safety/death/five-italian-divers-die-in-maldives-cave-disaster/