Military diver who died trying to recover tourists from Maldives cave was 'not trained' for mission, ex-boss claims

The military diver who sadly passed away while trying to recover the bodies of the missing Maldives divers was allegedly 'not trained' for the mission, one of his former colleagues has claimed.

Diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti, 44, Muriel Oddenino, 31, and Federico Gualtieri, 31, as well as University of Genova lecturer Monica Montefalcone, 52, and her 20-year-old daughter, Giorgia Sommacal, died after they failed to resurface from the dive in the waters of Vaavu Atoll on May 14.

Meanwhile, while searching for the bodies of the divers, Sergeant Major Mohamed Mahudhee also lost his life after coming into difficulties during the operation.

Mahudhee was part of a team of other divers who were sent to try and locate the group. Although they had cleared two out of three of the cave's chambers, Mahudhee failed to resurface.

Rescue diver Mohammed Mahudhee sadly died when trying to recover the bodies (MNDF)

A government spokesperson told the BBC that he was rushed to hospital in critical condition but sadly succumbed to his injuries.

Ex-military diver Shafraz Naeem has spoken about the dangers of the caves and claimed that Mahudhee was not properly trained for the recovery operation.

Naeem now consults for the Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF). He told the Maldives Independent: "He was a student of mine. He worked under me for a lot of years. He is one of the best.

"MNDF went on normal air. They are not trained to go.

"They have rebreathers that the Japanese government donated to them, very good rebreathers, one of the best brands in the world. But they are still training on that – they can't go below 40 meters on that.

"So they didn't use it. They are not trained on open-circuit mix gas diving, so they used normal air. And they are not trained to go into caves."

University of Genova lecturer Monica Montefalcone was present on the dive (University of Genova)

Giorgia Sommacal also passed away in the tragic incident (Instagram)

He added: "We also used to go, me and my old team, on air. We've taken bodies from even 70 or 80 meters. But those are not from caves – those were from reefs or lagoons. That, you can come up, if something goes wrong or you feel uncomfortable.

"Caves are very unforgiving and dangerous. You need special training."

Naeem also spoke about how 'unforgiving' the caves are, explaining to the Daily Mail: "I have visited those caves countless times. There is no current. They swam into that third cave. They chose to go in there.

"I believe the instructor intentionally swam away from the group. Maybe he legged it up before he ran out of air. The rest of the group died in that third chamber and Benedetti died in the passageway trying to get out."

Federico Gualtieri died in the 'shark cave' (Facebook)

Muriel Oddenino was another one of the divers who passed away (Facebook)

Benedetti, the instructor, was found in the entrance of the mouth of the Thinwana Kandu cave, while the rest of the group were found a few days later on Monday, deeper into the cave, at the bottom of the third chamber.

Naeem added: "It's a big cavern, the first chamber. The entrance is at around 55, and it gets deeper and deeper. Light penetrates to that first chamber because the opening is at 55 meters.

Marine biologist Gianluca Benedetti was also among those who died during the scuba trip (Albatros Top Boat)

"After that there's a tunnel of sorts, a connection that leads onto the second chamber, which starts at 70 meters if I am not wrong and goes on to about 75 or 78 meters – 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."

UNILAD has reached out to the MNDF for comment.