Authorities search waters in the Maldives for 4 Italians killed in a cave dive after 1 body found
Authorities are using expert divers and aircraft as rough weather slows a high-risk recovery effort, with four bodies still missing after one was found.
- On Thursday, five Italian tourists died in the Maldives' Vaavu Atoll, an incident local officials described as the worst diving accident in the nation's history.
- The group vanished while diving from the Duke vessel, during rough weather conditions with a yellow weather warning in place and winds reaching almost 50km/h.
- Among the dead were 55-year-old marine biologist Monica Montefalcone and her 20-year-old daughter Giorgia Sommacal, alongside Muriel Oddenino, Federico Gualtieri, and Gianluca Benedetti.
- Maldives National Defence Force crews discovered the bodies inside the cave network about 60 metres below the surface during a search operation they characterized as "high risk."
- The University offered "deepest condolences" to the community, while Italy's Foreign Ministry confirmed it is providing consular assistance to the families via the embassy in Sri Lanka.
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162 Articles
5 Photos of Muriel Oddenino: The 31-Year-Old Biologist, Expert Diver Who Died in the Tragic Maldives Scuba Diving Accident
Five Italian divers failed to resurface from a deep cave dive in the Maldives, including marine biologist and researcher Muriel Oddenino, 31, in what officials have described as the deadliest diving accident in the archipelago's history. The group, believed to be exploring an underwater cave system roughly 160 feet below the surface near Vaavu Atoll, vanished during the dive, sparking a multinational search and recovery effort that was later ham…
After five Italian divers lost their lives on Thursday in a tragic accident at a dive site in the Maldives, a local rescue diver also died on Saturday during the search for the missing bodies. Consequently, the authorities decided to suspend the search.
The military diver died of decompression sickness. The tour operator was unaware of the dive to a depth of more than 30 meters carried out by the Italians.
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