A missing GoPro may hold answers in the deadly Maldives diving tragedy after five Italian tourists lost their lives during a cave dive.
Five divers lost their lives in what seems to be a tragic scuba diving accident last Thursday in Vaavu Atoll, in the Indian Ocean archipelago. They’ve since been identified as University of Genoa marine biology professor Monica Montefalcone and her 20-year-old daughter Giorgia Sommacal, along with Muriel Oddenino, Gianluca Benedetti, and Federico Gualtieri. Sergeant Major Mohammed Mahudhee also died during the search operation for the missing divers.
As recovery efforts continue, officials are now waiting for three Finnish expert divers to arrive before resuming the operation.
Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu addressed the tragedy in a statement, saying: “The death of a diver of the Maldives National Defense Force while diving in search of missing tourists is a matter of deep sorrow for me and for every Maldivian citizen. This is heartbreaking news,” according to UNILAD.
Now, Monica Montefalcone’s husband, Carlo Sommacal, says a missing GoPro camera could potentially reveal what happened during the fatal dive.
Maldives scuba diving tragedy
Speaking to Italian outlet La Repubblica, Sommacal explained that his wife was highly experienced underwater, having completed around 5,000 dives.
“She knows what to do even in times of difficulty,” he said.
According to Sommacal, she often brought a GoPro with her when she was diving.
“I don’t know if she had one the other day. If they find it, maybe from there we can understand what happened,” he told the outlet.
Four of the victims were connected to the University of Genoa, which released a statement following the tragedy.
“The University of Genoa expresses its deep sorrow for the sudden and tragic death of Monica Montefalcone, associate professor of Ecology at the Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences – DISTAV, her daughter Giorgia Sommacal, a UniGe student in Biomedical Engineering, Muriel Oddenino, a research fellow at DISTAV, and Federico Gualtieri, a recent UniGe graduate in Marine Biology and Ecology.
“The sympathy of the entire university community goes out to the families, colleagues and students who shared their human and professional journey.”
Meanwhile, cave diving expert John Volanthen told CNN that the depth and structure of the cave system are making recovery efforts especially difficult.
“It’s essentially a very long way into the cave and normally, cave divers would lay a guideline to find their way out,” he said.
“That’s potentially what happened with the missing party.”
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