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Last Two Bodies of Italian Divers Recovered From Maldives Cave

The full recovery completes a complex international operation that has prompted criminal and administrative probes into why the group descended far beyond the country's recreational depth limit.

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The multinational recovery effort involved local experts, three Finnish divers from the global scuba safety group Divers Alert Network (DAN) and specialist equipment provided by the UK and Australia.
In this handout photo release by Maldives President Media Division, a Finnish diver, left, gets ready to attempt to recover the bodies of two of the four Italians who died deep inside an underwater cave in an atoll earlier this month, at Alimathaa Island, in Vaavu Atoll, Maldives, Tuesday, May 19, 2026.
An ambulance carrying the body of one of the five Italian scuba divers who died in an accident in underwater caves, arrives at a mortuary in Male, Maldives, May 19, 2026. REUTERS/Thilina Kaluthotage

Overview

  • Officials said the final two bodies were recovered from the cave on Wednesday, May 20, bringing the death toll to five after the instructor’s body was found the day the group went missing.
  • A three‑diver Finnish team from Divers Alert Network Europe led the deep recovery using closed‑circuit rebreathers and staged decompression procedures to bring bodies up from the cave’s third chamber at around 60–70 metres.
  • Search operations were temporarily suspended after a Maldivian National Defence Force rescue diver, Sergeant Major Mohamed Mahudhee, died from decompression complications during an earlier retrieval attempt.
  • Maldivian authorities have suspended the dive‑boat’s operating licence and opened an investigation into permitting, the dive plan and safety breaches while prosecutors in Rome launched a culpable‑homicide probe.
  • Recovered wetsuits, cameras and dive computers will be examined and autopsies and repatriation are being arranged, a process that could clarify whether currents, equipment or gas‑use at extreme depth caused the fatalities and lead to regulatory changes.