A Thursday morning dive in one of the world’s most celebrated underwater destinations ended in mass tragedy when five Italian nationals failed to resurface from a cave system plunging 160 feet beneath the surface of the Maldives.
The victims had boarded the Duke of York, a foreign-operated luxury live-aboard diving vessel, earlier that morning.
Their destination was the waters near Alimatha Island, a premier diving location within the Vaavu Atoll situated approximately 65 kilometers south of the Maldivian capital, Malé.
By midday, none of the five had come back up. Rescue teams received the alarm at roughly 1:45 p.m. local time and immediately launched a major operation, deploying both aircraft and speedboats across the search zone.
The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) issued a statement as the operation intensified.
“One body has been found among five divers who went diving in Vaavu Atoll,” it read. “The body was found inside a cave. It is believed that the remaining four divers are also inside the same cave, which extends to a depth of about 60 metres (65 yards).”
Rescue teams eventually recovered all five bodies from within the submerged cave network. Maldivian officials described it as the single deadliest diving accident ever recorded in the island nation.
Among the dead was Monica Montefalcone, 51, a professor of Tropical Marine Ecology and Underwater Science at the University of Genoa, a published marine biologist, and a recognized television personality in Italy.
During the expedition, she was serving as scientific director of an island monitoring campaign. She was attached to Distav, the University of Genoa’s Department of Earth Sciences.
Montefalcone’s 20-year-old daughter, Giorgia Sommacal, was also killed in the accident.
The remaining three victims were Muriel Oddenino of Turin, a colleague of Montefalcone’s at the University of Genoa; Gianluca Benedetti of Padua, a certified diving instructor, boat captain, and operations manager; and Federico Gualtieri of Borgomanero.
Rome moved quickly to confirm the deaths.
Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a formal statement: “Following an accident during a scuba dive, five Italians died in the Vaavu atoll, in the Maldives.” The Ministry and the Italian Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, added they have been “contacting the victims’ families to provide any necessary consular assistance.”
Conditions at the dive site were deteriorating at the time of the incident. Winds were blowing between 25 and 30 miles per hour, and the national meteorological service had placed the area under a yellow weather alert that morning. The warning remained active as search teams worked through the afternoon.
Maldivian police opened a formal investigation. No official cause of death has been confirmed, and authorities have not yet released a conclusive finding.
Diving experts cited in local media reports raised the possibility of oxygen toxicity as a contributing factor.
The condition develops when a diver breathes oxygen at elevated pressure over a sustained period, producing central nervous system disruption and potential tissue damage.
The Duke of York’s official website confirms the vessel supplies nitrox — a nitrogen-oxygen breathing blend — to divers aboard.
The Duke of York, built in 2010, was designed specifically to ferry diving enthusiasts to top underwater sites across the Maldives. The vessel carries up to 21 guests across 11 luxury cabins on three decks.
Each cabin includes private air conditioning and a bathroom. A one-week cruise aboard the ship runs just over €2,000 per person. The crew numbers 13 members.
Common areas aboard include an air-conditioned interior lounge with a full entertainment system and bar, a main deck restaurant serving both Italian and local cuisine, and multiple open decks furnished with sun loungers and panoramic seating.
The Maldives itself is composed of 1,192 coral islands scattered across roughly 500 miles of the equatorial Indian Ocean — and its waters, long regarded as a global mecca for serious divers, are now at the center of a criminal investigation.
