Five divers’ death: Italy launches criminal investigation

Italian prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation into the deaths of five Italian divers who died during a diving expedition in the Maldives.

The five divers were reported missing at around 01:45pm Thursday after going on a scuba diving trip to a 200-meter-long underwater cave system located near V. Alimatha.

The victims were identified as Monica Montefalcone, a marine biology professor connected to the University of Genoa; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri; researcher Muriel Oddenino; and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti.

The incident is considered one of the deadliest diving accidents in Maldivian history. The operating license of the safari vessel involved, the "Duke of York," has been temporarily suspended.

In addition to the investigation launched by the Maldives Police Service, Italian prosecutors have initiated a separate probe to determine whether the deaths resulted from criminal negligence. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, it remains unclear who the primary subjects of the investigation are at this stage.

Speaking with The Associated Press, the government’s chief spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef (Mundhu), said the Maldivian government’s investigation would examine whether the organizers of the expedition had implemented the necessary safety measures and adequate planning procedures. He noted that the recovery of the bodies is expected to provide critical forensic evidence, while emphasizing cave diving as an inherently high-risk activity.

Although the expedition was led by Montefalcone, a marine researcher and associate professor at the University of Genoa, Shareef revealed that the research proposal submitted to the government lacked certain key details. He further stated that authorities were unaware of the exact dive location planned by the group and noted that two of the deceased had not been included in the official participant list provided by the organizers.

Shareef described the dive site as extremely dangerous due to its depth and strong currents, adding that reports indicated visibility inside the cave was virtually non-existent.

The MNDF had continued to conduct recovery dives, before suspending the mission on Saturday, after Coast Guard’s Sergeant First Class Mohamed Mahudhy died during one of the dives. The operation resumed on Monday with a team of three Finnish technical diving experts, one of whom is a cave diving specialist.

On the same day, the Finnish team located four bodies close together inside the innermost chamber of the cave, its deepest section at a depth of approximately 60 meters. Under Maldivian law, recreational diving is restricted to a maximum depth of 30 meters.

Two of them recovered on Tuesday, with the team expected to re-enter the site today to recover the remaining two.

The body of the group’s diving instructor, Benedetti, had been found outside the cave entrance on Thursday, the day of the incident. Italian media reports stated that his oxygen cylinder was empty, a detail investigators are treating as key evidence.

Antonello Riccio, the lawyer representing Gualtieri’s family, confirmed on Tuesday that the two recovered bodies were those of Montefalcone and Gualtieri. However, the Maldivian government stated that official identification will only be confirmed following the completion of autopsies. Montefalcone was a prominent marine expert in Italy and was widely recognized for her frequent television appearances.

In a statement, the University of Genoa clarified that although Montefalcone and Odenino were in the Maldives as part of an official climate change research project, the dive during which the accident occurred was a private excursion and not connected to the university’s formal research activities.

As efforts continue to recover the remaining two bodies, authorities from both the Maldives and Italy are working together to determine the exact cause of the tragedy.