A research trip to one of the world’s most beautiful dive destinations turned into the deadliest diving incident in Maldivian history.
On the morning of May 14, 2026, a group of Italian divers descended into the turquoise waters off Alimathaa Island in the Maldives’ Vaavu Atoll. They were aboard the Duke of York, a liveaboard dive vessel, and the plan was to explore Devana Kandu — a submerged channel known for its soft corals and rich marine life. By afternoon, all five were missing. Not one of them resurfaced.
The victims were Monica Montefalcone, 51, an associate professor of marine ecology at the University of Genoa; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri; researcher Muriel Oddenino; and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti. Montefalcone and Oddenino were in the Maldives on an official university mission, studying the effects of climate change on tropical marine environments. A sixth diver, also part of the group, chose not to enter the water that morning. That decision likely saved their life.
A Cave That Swallows the Light
What the group entered wasn’t a typical dive site. Devana Kandu is an underwater cave system, and its entrance sits at roughly 55 metres below the surface — almost double the 30-metre legal limit for recreational and commercial diving in the Maldives. Beyond the first chamber, there is no natural light. The cave stretches deeper through a series of narrow passageways into a vast inner chamber of pitch-black darkness, with unpredictable currents that can shift without warning.
Recreational diving permits — including the one the group held — do not cover cave diving. It is an entirely different discipline, requiring specialist training, specific gas mixtures, and equipment far beyond standard scuba gear. At depths beyond 55 metres, breathing ordinary compressed air carries the risk of oxygen toxicity, a condition where excess oxygen over-stimulates the nervous system and can cause sudden loss of consciousness.
The Maldives government had issued the group a permit to research soft corals at the site. Authorities say they were not informed the dive would involve entering the cave. Two of the five divers who died weren’t even listed on the permit documentation submitted by the group’s organisers.
The Recovery Effort Claims a Sixth Life
When the divers failed to surface, a large-scale recovery operation was launched — but the cave that took five lives nearly claimed more. A Maldives National Defense Force diver, Sgt-Major Mohamed Mahudhee, died from complications during decompression while assisting the recovery effort. He became the sixth fatality connected to the incident.
The multinational operation that followed involved local dive experts, three specialist Finnish divers from Divers Alert Network (DAN), and equipment flown in from the UK and Australia. Each dive into the cave was capped at three hours due to oxygen and pressure constraints. Recovery teams used balloons to mark the cave entrance from the surface, maximising the limited time available below.
The body of Gianluca Benedetti, the group’s diving instructor, was the first recovered — found in the second chamber with an empty air tank. The remaining four divers were eventually located days later, deep inside the cave’s third chamber. It took until May 19 — five days after they disappeared — before all bodies were found.
Investigations Underway on Two Continents
The scale of the tragedy has triggered legal proceedings on both sides. Italian prosecutors have opened a culpable homicide investigation. In the Maldives, authorities are examining whether organisers took the correct precautions and whether proper planning was in place before the dive.
Montefalcone’s husband, Carlo Sommacal — who lost both his wife and daughter — told Italian media that “something must have happened down there,” pointing to his wife’s decades of diving experience as evidence that the accident defied easy explanation. He described her as a careful, disciplined diver who had even survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami while underwater off the coast of Kenya.
The University of Genoa issued a statement confirming the fatal dive was not part of its official scientific programme.
What began as a research expedition to one of the world’s most celebrated dive destinations ended with six people dead and two countries scrambling for answers. The investigation is ongoing, and the questions it raises — about permits, preparation, and the fine line between expert adventurism and fatal risk — are far from resolved.