Military diver who died trying to recover Italian tourists in Maldives was ‘not trained’ to go into caves, ex-boss says

A military diver who died trying to recover the bodies of four Italian tourists trapped 200 feet underwater in a cave in the Maldives was “not trained” to carry out such missions, according to his former boss. 

Sgt. Major Mohamed Mahudhee, a member of the Maldivian National Defense Force, died from underwater decompression sickness Saturday when he tried to recover the adventure seekers who vanished during last week’s scuba diving excursion.

He was “one of the best” divers around — but not trained for the mission that proved fatal, his military mentor, Shafraz Naeem, told the Maldives Independent.

The dive team “went on normal air … They are not trained to go into caves,” maintained Naeem, whom the local outlet called the country’s most accomplished cave diver.

Divers “need special training” because the caves are “very unforgiving and dangerous,” the retired military expert said.

“I am saying they shouldn’t have gone in, knowing that it’s dangerous,” he said. 

Mahudhee, 44, was part of a team of eight divers tasked with trying to find the bodies. They had cleared two of the three chambers within the cave – around 200-feet deep – but he failed to reappear.

“It’s a big cavern, the first chamber. The entrance is at around [180 feet] and it gets deeper and deeper,” Naeem explained.

“After that there’s a tunnel of sorts, a connection that leads onto the second chamber, which starts at [230 feet] and goes on to about [255 feet] – that’s also a big chamber. 

“You cannot see the whole cave unless you have very good lights – you cannot see it from your normal dive light.”

Other experienced local divers agreed.

“This operation should never have gone ahead under these conditions,” Fahd Faiz said in a Facebook post.

“The entire situation was screaming for disaster from the very beginning.”

Divers often turn to trimix – a mixture of oxygen, nitrogen and helium – when carrying out dives beyond 130 feet, but Mahudhee was breathing compressed air.

“A cave dive at almost [190 feet] with normal air already presents multiple risk factors,” Naeem told the Italian news agency ANSA Saturday, according to Il Sore 24 Ore.

The recovery mission was paused in light of Mahudhee’s death before it resumed Monday.

An elite team of three expert divers from Finland located the bodies of Monica Montefalcone, 52, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, 20, Muriel Oddenino, 31, and Federico Gualtieri, 31, on Monday, Italy’s foreign ministry said.

The body of diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, 44, was recovered on Friday.

The causes of death for the five have not yet been established, Italy’s foreign ministry said, with divers working to bring the bodies back to the surface.

Maldivian officials have described the tragedy as the single worst diving accident the idyllic nation has seen.