Finnish rescue divers believe they may have SOLVED Maldives cave dive mystery that claimed five lives – with ‘sand wall illusion’ to blame

A group of expert Finnish divers may have solved the mystery surrounding the deaths of five Italians who died while exploring deep-sea caves in the Maldives.

Italian divers set out to explore the caves of Vaavu Atoll last Thursday but never resurfaced.

The body of diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti was found near the mouth of the cave on the day the divers disappeared, while the remaining four bodies were found on Monday at a depth of about 55 meters.

The tragedy, dubbed the worst diving incident in the island nation, has been clouded by mystery and investigators are trying to determine how the group of experienced divers met their fate.

A team of expert Finnish divers who recovered the bodies this week suggested the Italian group may have used the wrong tunnel when exiting an underwater cave.

Professional divers working for Dan Europe, a medical and research organization dedicated to the health and safety of scuba divers, found the Italians in a dead-end corridor within the cave complex, Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper reported.

“There was no way out of here,” said the company’s CEO, Laura Marroni, as quoted by La Repubblica.

Italian divers include Monica Montefalcone, professor of marine biology with many years of experience; daughter Giorgia Sommacal; two young researchers, Federico Gualtieri and Muriel Oddenino; and their Maldives-based guide Benedetti.

Finnish divers found that the cave near Alimatha began with the first large, very bright cave with a sandy bottom, Marroni told the newspaper.

At the end of this room is a corridor with very little light, but ‘visibility was excellent when artificial lighting was used,’ he said.

The corridor is almost 30 meters long and 3 meters wide and leads to a second chamber of the cave, a large, circular space with no natural light.

There is a sand bank between the corridor and the second room.

It’s easy to get over the sandbar and into the second room, but when you turn around to exit again, the shore looks almost like a wall, obscuring the corridor, the paper said.

To the left of the beach is another corridor – only a few dozen meters long.

‘The bodies of the divers were found inside as if they had mistaken them for the right body,’ the newspaper said.

If they had used that corridor by mistake, ‘it would have been very difficult for them to return, especially with the limited air supply,’ Marroni said.

The divers were using standard tanks, which meant they had little time to visit the second cave at that depth, he said.

“We’re talking about 10 minutes, maybe less,” Marroni said.

‘It’s terrifying to realize you’ve gone the wrong way and perhaps have very little air after driving back and forth. “Then you breathe rapidly and the air supply decreases,” he said.

Authorities in the Maldives are investigating how the Indian Ocean nation allows a maximum depth of 98ft for tourists while Italians were allowed to go to a depth of nearly 200ft.

Finnish divers recovered technical equipment, including GoPro cameras worn by some of the group; authorities hope this will help them better understand how the tragedy unfolded.

Rescue efforts ended when the bodies of the last two divers (Sommacal and Oddenino) were recovered on Wednesday.

Montefalcone’s daughter Giorgia is among the five divers who died

Pictured: Researcher Muriel Oddenino. His body was recovered from a deep-sea cave on Wednesday.

Gianluca Benedetti, 44, was a diving instructor. He was the first person whose body was found last week

Federico Gualtieri, 31, was a researcher and diver among five people who died in the Maldives last week.

Montefalcone’s husband, Carlo Sommacal, said in an interview with Italian media that his wife could never put her daughter or others at risk.

He described him as ‘one of the best divers in the world’, who had completed nearly 5,000 dives, was ‘always careful’ and ‘never reckless’.

He told Reuters in a WhatsApp message: “I’m sorry, I wasn’t there, I’m not an expert and from what I’ve seen and read, even experts don’t have definitive answers, they just put forward hypotheses, most of them.”

On Friday, he said footage captured with a GoPro camera could reveal the mystery surrounding their deaths.

Speaking to Italian news outlet La Repubblica, the distraught husband said: ‘Monica usually had a GoPro when she went diving.

‘I don’t know if there was one the other day. If they find it, maybe we can figure out what happened from there.’

‘He would never risk our daughter’s life or anyone else’s life… something must have happened there,’ he said.

‘Maybe there was something wrong with one of them, maybe the oxygen tanks, I have no idea.’

Sommacal added that Benedetti, one of the divers who participated in the expedition, was ‘meticulous’.

‘He checked everything: the tanks, the weather conditions. He’s not an idiot,’ Sommacal said. ‘It must be fate; ‘They took every possible precaution.’

Authorities are investigating whether the divers got lost due to bad weather conditions and limited visibility on the day of the incident.

The divers carried 12-litre oxygen tanks, while Montefalcone wore a brief wetsuit; Neither was suitable for the depths to which they dived.

Police and medical personnel hold a piece of cloth to protect the bodies of two Italian divers as they were transported to an ambulance in Male, Maldives

Investigators are also looking into whether the divers were carrying flashlights and using the ‘Ariadne Rope’ required for deep-sea cave exploration.

Among the emerging theories is the possibility that the divers were pulled into the cave by a strong ‘freak’ current.

According to Alfonso Bolognini, president of the Italian Society of Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine, the five divers may have been pulled into the crevasse by a strong current called the ‘Venturi effect’.

This phenomenon occurs when flowing water enters a narrow point of obstruction, creating suction force by forcing it to accelerate.

Italian authorities were yesterday arranging for the bodies of the divers to be repatriated so that an autopsy could be performed to determine the cause of death.

The Italian tour operator who led the diving trip denied authorizing or knowing about the deep dive, which violated local limits, his lawyer told newspaper Corriere della Sera on Saturday.

Orietta Stella, representing Albatros Top Boat, said the operator ‘did not know’ the group planned to go below 98ft, the limit for recreational diving in the Maldives.

He said this threshold required special permission from Maldivian maritime authorities and the tour operator ‘will never allow this’.

Stella added that the dive went well beyond what was planned for a scientific expedition focused on coral sampling at standard depths.

Abdul Muhsin Moosa, boat operator of MV Duke of York, said the ship has a resting depth permit of up to 38 metres.

‘We are also sharing these details with the government,’ he said, adding that divers were informed about the Maldives’ recreational diving limits when they arrived on the boat and that divers were not allowed to go beyond 38 metres.

For recreational dives up to the limit, normal air is compressed with 21 percent oxygen and 79 percent nitrogen, but for deeper dives, the oxygen content should be above 32 percent, experts said.

For depths reaching at least 164 ft, divers were recommended to use at least two cylinders of special air each.

He said the victims were experienced divers but the equipment used appeared to be standard recreational equipment rather than technical equipment suitable for deep cave expeditions.

Cave diving is a highly technical and dangerous activity that requires special training, equipment and strict safety protocols.

In environments where divers cannot go steep and deep, risks increase rapidly, especially when conditions are poor.

Experts say it’s easy to get lost or disoriented inside caves, especially since sediment clouds can sharply reduce visibility.

Diving at 164 ft also exceeds the maximum depth recommended for recreational divers by most established scuba certification bodies; Depths beyond 131 ft are considered technical diving and require special training and equipment.

Maldives Presidential Spokesperson Mohammed Hussain Shareef said that the cave was ‘so deep that even divers with the best equipment did not try to approach it’.

The death of Maldivian rescue diver Mohamed Mahudhee from decompression sickness while trying to recover the bodies on Saturday highlighted the difficulties of diving so deep.

Made up of 1,192 small coral islands scattered about 500 miles along the equator in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives is a luxury resort popular with divers who often stay in secluded resorts or on dive boats.

While local regulations allow dives to a maximum depth of 98 ft, experienced professionals have been known to go deeper.

Accidents related to diving and water sports are relatively rare in the South Asian country, although a number of fatal incidents have been reported in recent years.