{"id":337514,"date":"2026-05-20T02:16:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=337514"},"modified":"2026-05-20T02:16:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T20:46:30","slug":"maldives-diving-instructor-intentionally-swam-away-from-cave-where-six-died-news-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/20\/maldives-diving-instructor-intentionally-swam-away-from-cave-where-six-died-news-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Maldives diving instructor &#8216;intentionally swam away&#8217; from cave where six died | News World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><figcaption>In total six people have died throughout the dive, including ecology professor Monica Montefalcone (left) and her daughter Giorgia Sommacal (right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A Maldives cave diving instructor could have \u2018intentionally swam away\u2019 from a tourist group where six people have died as they entered \u2018pitch black cave\u2019. <\/p>\n<p>Five Italians on a research trip were killed during a dive into the 160 ft deep \u2018shark cave\u2019 within the Devana Kandu cave system last week.<\/p>\n<p>The bodies of ecology professor Monica Montefalcone, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, researcher Muriel Oddenino, and marine biologist Federico Gualtieri were discovered yesterday. <\/p>\n<p>They were accompanied by diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, whose body was found last week. <\/p>\n<p>Two bodies of those found yesterday have now been dropped at the surface, with the opposite two expected to be recovered tomorrow in a \u2018technically complex operation\u2019. <\/p>\n<p>In total six people have been killed as a part of the cave dive, with Maldivian military rescue diver Mohamed Mahudhee dying from decompression illness on Saturday during a recovery mission. <\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\" data-ico=\"factbox_article\" data-track-module=\"factbox_article\">\n<h2 class=\"factbox-title\">\n\t\t\t\tJoin for all of the most recent stories\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"factbox-content\">\n<p>Start your day informed with Metro&#8217;s <strong>News Updates<\/strong> newsletter or get <strong>Breaking News <\/strong>alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.metro.co.uk\/i\/html_modules\/2026\/05_MAY\/260518_Maldives_Diver_Search\/index.html\" width=\"100%\" height=\"500px\" class=\"metro-iframe iframe-autoheight \" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" name=\"6a0ccc24c9f38\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"646\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SEI_297167530-d214.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28379970\" alt=\"Federico Gualtieri died in the Maldives, the 31-year-old Piedmontese Five tourists 'including university professor and her daughter' die during diving excursion in 160ft-deep cave in Maldives\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Federico Gualtieri, a marine biologist, died throughout the cave dive on Thursday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"646\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SEI_297249118-02ca.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28379965\" alt=\"15818615 Five tourists die during diving excursion in 160ft-deep cave in Maldives Muriel Oddenino https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo\/?fbid=10238827465\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Researcher Muriel Oddenino had been on an official scientific mission with Ms Montefalcone prior to the dive (Picture: Facebook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The group was on a research trip about soft corals on Thursday morning when the group is believed to have died around 160 ft deep.<\/p>\n<p>That they had launched the expedition from the Duke of York yacht, which didn&#8217;t have a permit allowing dives of greater than 100 ft. <\/p>\n<p>Monica\u2019s husband and pop of Giorgia Carlo Sommacal told Italian media his wife \u2018was among the best divers on this planet\u2019 and would never put his daughter in danger. <\/p>\n<p>He said she had carried out about 5,000 dives and was \u2018never reckless\u2019. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"564\" height=\"530\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SEI_297148258-2d03-e1778838010707.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=564\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28379979\" alt=\"15818615 Five tourists die during diving excursion in 160ft-deep cave in Maldives Monica Montefalcone ttps:\/\/www.corriere.it\/cronache\/26_maggio_14\/cinque-italiani-morti-alle-maldive-durante-un-escursione-subacquea-86e3f90c-9681-4fcc-a3c7-ac86bd900xlk.shtml\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Monica Montefalcone was within the Maldives on a research trip, but undertook the tour privately.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"312\" height=\"548\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SEI_297162416-eaa8-e1778837673230.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=312\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28379975\" alt=\"Monica Montefalcone's daughter Giorgia Sommaca Five tourists 'including university professor and her daughter' die during diving excursion in 160ft-deep cave in Maldives\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Monica Montefalcone\u2019s daughter, Giorgia Sommacal, died alongside her mother on the expedition<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"345\" height=\"649\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SEI_297163288-838e.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=345\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28379971\" alt=\"Gianluca Benedetti Five tourists 'including university professor and her daughter' die during diving excursion in 160ft-deep cave in Maldives\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Gianluca Benedetti\u2019s body was the primary to be recovered last week<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Shafraz Naeem, a Maldivian diving veteran who has explored the Devana Kandu cave system over 30 times, said he believes \u2018rules were broken\u2019 throughout the dive. <\/p>\n<p>He said light only reaches the primary chamber and is pitch black beyond it, adding he believes the trainer \u2018intentionally swam away\u2019. <\/p>\n<p>He told the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/news\/article-15829285\/Maldives-death-caves-NEVER-chamber-tourists-local-expert-horrors.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u00a0Each day Mail<\/a>: \u2018It&#8217;s incredibly dangerous to conduct dives at these depths on compressed air.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Perhaps he legged it up before he ran out of air. The remainder of the group died in that third chamber and Benedetti died within the passageway attempting to get out.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Gianluca\u2019s body was the primary to be recovered from near the mouth of the Thinwana Kandu cave on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile the opposite bodies lie much deeper within the cave system. <\/p>\n<p>The Italian tour operator that managed the diving trip has denied authorising or knowing concerning the group\u2019s deep dive, which exceeded local limits, its lawyer told Italian local publication Corriere della Sera.<\/p>\n<p>An investigation is underway to ascertain the reason behind death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong><strong><strong>Get in contact with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this, <\/strong><strong>check our news page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Boyfriend of Maldives diver was \u2018waiting for photos of cave\u2019 when she died<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Recent DNA evaluation raises fresh questions on Christopher Columbus\u2019 origins<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Bodies of 4 missing Maldives divers present in deepest a part of \u2018shark cave\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\"><a class=\"metro-button share-bar-comments\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card accent--news\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card__inner\">\n<h4>News Updates<\/h4>\n<p>Stay on top of the headlines with each day email updates.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In total six people have died throughout the dive, including ecology professor Monica Montefalcone (left) and her daughter Giorgia Sommacal (right) A Maldives cave diving instructor could have \u2018intentionally swam away\u2019 from a tourist group where six people have died as they entered \u2018pitch black cave\u2019. Five Italians on a research trip were killed during [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":337515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20691],"tags":[7947,10143,6640,42042,45124,28897,395,51910,813],"class_list":["post-337514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-cave","tag-died","tag-diving","tag-instructor","tag-intentionally","tag-maldives","tag-news","tag-swam","tag-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337514"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":337517,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337514\/revisions\/337517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}