Maldives sea – Divers resumed a perilous mission in the Maldives cave on Monday after a temporary pause following a military diver’s death, with four Italians still missing after five died during a scuba trip in Vaavu Atoll.
The search inside a maze-like underwater cave in the Maldives reignited on Monday with familiar stakes and a new gravity: one recovery attempt already cost another life.
The operation had been halted temporarily after a military diver died during a second push into the cave, and then restarted as international cave divers linked up with Maldivian specialists to retrieve the remains of four Italians who died while scuba diving in the island chain.
The deaths began after five Italians died while exploring the Vaavu Atoll on Thursday, setting off a multinational effort that has now expanded into a careful, step-by-step recovery plan.
So far. the body of one of the Italians has been discovered at the entrance to the cave. Maldives chief government spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef said.. The diver’s remains belonged to Gianluca Benedetti. found at the mouth of the cave. a detail that led authorities to believe the other four Italians remain inside.
The missing are Monica Montefalcone, an associate professor of ecology at the University of Genoa; her daughter Giorgia Sommacal; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri; and researcher Muriel Oddenino.
While divers returned to the water, the team was reshaped by a sobering decision made during Sunday’s planning.. Three Finnish divers from the Divers Alert Network (DAN). a global scuba safety group. joined a fourth expert and the local coastguard to develop a new strategy.. Shareef added that specialist equipment is being provided by the United Kingdom and Australia.
On Monday, before any further recovery attempt, the group carried out “orientation dives” to assess the cave’s structure, Shareef said.
One more diver from the group did not enter the water when the rest of the team dove in, authorities confirmed.
The Italians were on a scuba diving expedition aboard the Duke of York vessel, according to Italy’s foreign ministry.
As officials tried to keep the living safe, the Red Crescent offered to provide psychological First Aid to an overall 20 Italians who remained onboard, the ministry added, with no injuries immediately reported.
Behind the recovery effort, the cave’s depth and the conditions inside it have become central to every decision.. Shareef described the cave as deep and long—at its deepest point 70 meters (230 feet) below the surface. and 200 meters long—with pitch-black darkness and narrow passageways leading to a vast chamber.. “You have to be an expert for this level of diving,” he added.
The renewed mission has already taken its own toll. Senior military diver Sgt. Mohamed Mahudhee, 43, died on Saturday during a second recovery mission into the cave.
Shareef said Mahudhee was “one of the most senior divers,” emphasizing how challenging the dive had been.
Authorities believe Mahudhee, a member of the national defense force, died from decompression sickness—linked to a rapid decrease in pressure surrounding you, whether from air or water.
Decompression sickness is most common in scuba or deep-sea divers, but can also happen during high-altitude or unpressurized air travel, according to Harvard Health.
A key restriction is also shaping timing. Each dive in the Maldives recovery mission is limited to around three hours due to oxygen and decompression requirements, Shareef said.
Even the choreography of entry has been designed around time and visibility.. During Saturday’s recovery operation. two divers marked the cave entrance by shooting a balloon up to the water’s surface. allowing other crew to swim directly toward it and maximize their time inside.. Before resurfacing, divers must stay in shallow water to decompress after ascending from the cave’s depths.
Shareef said Mahudhee was diving in a pair, as per protocol, and returning to the surface when his partner realized something was wrong. He said the rest of the team jumped in to try to save him.
After Mahudhee’s death, divers reentered the water on Monday joined by DAN cave divers for a safety assessment of the cave. Shareef said the Finnish divers will not go into the decompression zone on Monday and “can’t dive until they fully acclimatize, especially after flying for many hours.”
During the planning. DAN CEO Laura Moroney said factors to consider could include whether there is “too strong of an underwater current” and whether the cave’s “morphology… is safe enough for their planning.” She also described how decisions are tied to risk: “The team knows they do not have to put themselves at risk… if there is any condition they deem to be too dangerous. they will stop the dive. go back to surface. replan and then dive again the next day. or whenever possible.”
Underwater scooters and specialized gas tanks that can recycle air are part of the equipment set being used, aiming to buy more time underwater.
For the next steps, Maldivian authorities said they remain confident they can continue the search, with progress expected to shape how the mission is reviewed in the coming days.
A seventh day of tension has also been reflected in what can and cannot be blamed yet.. John Volanthen. a British Cave Rescue Council diving officer who played a key role in the rescue of Thai youth soccer team in 2018. said it was unknown whether currents played a part in the incident. but that the cave’s depth and silt are “unquestionably hampering” recovery efforts.
He said, “It’s essentially a very long way into the cave and normally, cave divers would lay a guideline to find their way into the cave. And that’s potentially what happened with the missing party.”
Volanthen also raised the possibility that panic could affect divers. with risks increasing on deeper dives due to narcosis—a temporary. intoxicating state from breathing compressed air.. He warned that narcosis could make people “less likely to be able to find their way out. ” and that if the cave becomes silty. as is normal for this type of cave if divers touch the walls or the floor. “finding the way out becomes much more difficult.”
Outside the technical debate, family grief has followed every update.. Carlo Sommacal. Montefalcone’s husband and Giorgia’s father. said he was unsure what caused the accident. telling that “something must have happened down there” given his wife and daughter’s extensive experience.. He described Montefalcone as a careful and disciplined diver who would never put her daughter or other colleagues at risk. including recalling her saying at times: “This one I can do. you can’t.” He also said she survived the 2004 tsunami while diving off Kenya.
An investigation is underway to establish what happened to the divers and whether and how they reached such depths.
Shareef said that for recreational and commercial diving, by law, nobody is allowed to go further than 30 meters, and he said it appeared the group went deeper because even the cave’s mouth is almost 50 meters under.
The vessel’s license has been suspended pending the results of the probe, Shareef said: “Everything will be looked into.”
The tour operator at the center of the trip dispute denied authorizing the deep dive that violated local limits.. Orietta Stella, representing Albatros Top Boat, said the operator “did not know” the group planned to descend beyond 30 meters.. She said crossing that threshold requires special permission from Maldivian maritime authorities and that the tour operator “would have never allowed it.”
Stella also said the equipment used appeared to be standard recreational gear rather than technical equipment suited for deep-cave diving.. She added that Albatros only marketed the cruise and neither owned the vessel nor employed the crew. which was hired locally.. The report added that CNN has contacted Albatros Top Boat for comment.
Italy’s foreign minister Antonio Tajani said everything possible would be done to return their remains, while the Italian government is already seeking answers about the circumstances surrounding the dive.
Even as the dead are honored, the missing remain at the center of official planning.. Mahudhee was laid to rest with full military honors at a ceremony in the Maldivian capital Malé. where thousands paid their respects. including President Mohamed Muizzu. tourism and military officials and foreign ambassadors.
Shareef said Maldives has extensive water safety protocols and expert divers, noting the archipelago’s ocean territory is around 3,000 times larger than its landmass.
For many in the Maldives, the loss is also tied to tourism itself. Shareef said local people are devastated not just because it is the biggest diving accident ever in this country but also because “they are Italians.”
Maldives is highly reliant on tourism, welcoming more than 2 million visitors in 2025, according to its tourism ministry, compared with a resident population of 500,000.
Shareef connected Italy’s place in that economy to history, saying: “Italy has a very special relationship with us when it comes to tourism, and we’ve been great friends in our hospitality for many years.” He added, “Local people are devastated…”
The Maldivian and Italian governments have been in communication “at the highest level,” with Muizzu sending his “deepest condolences” to Italian President Sergio Mattarella and the families of the deceased and missing, Shareef said.
Italy’s foreign ministry said Rome’s envoy to the country joined rescuers aboard a coast guard ship on Friday.
The picture of risk in the cave is now tied to the way the mission keeps pausing and restarting: the operation resumed Monday only after a temporary suspension following Mahudhee’s death. and on Monday itself the team conducted orientation dives and adjusted plans around decompression rules. acclimatization. and dive-time limits of around three hours.
With more than one life already lost inside the recovery timeline, the next underwater steps are being shaped less by speed and more by safety assessments, equipment choices, and decisions that can end a dive before it becomes irreversible.
Maldives Vaavu Atoll underwater cave Italian tourists scuba diving recovery mission decompression sickness DAN Mohamed Hussain Shareef Mohamed Muizzu