Italy Seizes 5 Divers' Devices in Maldives Death Probe as Evidence Points to Navigational Error
Updated
Updated · DIVE Magazine · May 22
Italy Seizes 5 Divers' Devices in Maldives Death Probe as Evidence Points to Navigational Error
6 articles · Updated · DIVE Magazine · May 22
Italian investigators seized phones, computers and storage devices from the five divers who died in the Vaavu Atoll cave on May 14, widening a manslaughter probe and seeking access to GoPros and dive computers held in Malé.
Interviews with the Finnish recovery team and local divers increasingly point to a fatal navigation mistake: the group likely entered the cave deliberately, then mistook a dead-end tunnel for the exit from the deeper chamber.
The cave's layout may have contributed — a 30-meter S-shaped passage opens into a second chamber, where a sandbank can obscure the true exit, while the wrong left-hand corridor leads to a third chamber and dead end where four bodies were found.
Equipment and gas choices are also under scrutiny: reports say the team used standard 12-liter tanks for a 50-60 meter dive, with no guideline, leaving only minutes of bottom time and raising the risk of narcosis and panic.
Autopsies in Italy and data from recovered cameras and dive computers are expected to clarify the final sequence in a disaster that also killed Maldivian rescue diver Mohamed Mahudhee.
What secrets do the divers' recovered GoPros hold about their final, fatal moments?
Beyond a tragic mistake, who is criminally responsible for the six deaths in the Maldives cave?
Why did experienced research divers ignore the most basic safety rules of cave exploration?