A scuba dive in the Maldives may have turned deadly with a single wrong move inside a maze-like cave. Four of the five Italian divers who died in the cave appear to have followed a dead-end tunnel instead of the correct exit passage, according to the head of the firm that recovered their bodies. Finnish divers working for DAN Europe found the group—University of Genoa professor Monica Montefalcone; and her 20-year-old daughter Giorgia Sommacal, and researchers Muriel Oddenino and Federico Gualtieri—in a blind corridor about 165 feet below the surface, Italian outlet la Repubblica reports, via CBS News. "There was no way out from there," said CEO Laura Marroni.
Marroni described an underwater cave with two large chambers, connected by a 100-foot-long corridor. While it's easy to return from the second chamber using that corridor, the pathway initially appears to be blocked by a sandbank not visible to the same degree upon entry, Marroni said. She suspects that this might have confused the group, which instead took a dead-end tunnel to the left of the sandbank. At that point, "it would have been very difficult to return, especially with the limited air supply," Marroni said. "We're talking about 10 minutes, maybe even less." The first chamber is 180 feet deep, with the second chamber at least 230 feet deep, an expert tells the Maldives Independent. Recreational divers are to go no deeper than 98 feet.
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