After learning that he had lost two members of his family on the dive, Sommaca said: “She would never have put her daughter’s life or the lives of the other children at risk out of recklessness. Something happened down there.”

Police in the small island archipelago have said they are exploring multiple theories about what took place on the dive, which experts have said would have been challenging even in ideal conditions.

One early theory is that poor visibility may have hampered the dive team’s ability to navigate underwater due to poor visibility and wind speeds on the surface up to 30mph.

Officials have also said they are not ruling out the possibility that one of the divers may have become stuck in the cave, with the rest of the team failing to surface due to an attempt to free them.

Alfonso Bolognini, president of the Italian Society of Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine, explained the risks to the Mail: “At 50 meters of depth in the sea, there are several risks; it’s a real tragedy.

“There are several hypotheses we can make right now: an inadequate breathing mix can create a hyperoxic crisis when there’s an increase in the partial pressure of oxygen in the tissues and blood plasma, which can cause neurological problems.

“Inside a cave at 50 meters of depth, all it takes is a problem for a diver or a panic attack for a diver.” He added: ‘the agitation causes the water to become cloudy and can impair visibility.

“In these cases, the panic component could lead to even fatal errors.

Ex-military diver describes horrors Maldives scuba divers may have endured in cave’s third chamber

Diver Shafraz Naeem has spoken about the dangers of the third chamber, and why the cave is so ‘unforgiving’

A former military diver has spoken about what the five divers who sadly passed away while cave diving in the Maldives may have experienced in the cave’s third chamber.

Five Italian tourists died on Thursday (May 14) after they vanished in the waters of Vaavu Atoll.

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, passed away after they failed to resurface from the dive.

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

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.

University of Genova lecturer Monica Montefalcone was amongst those present on the diving trip (University of Genova)

Her 20-year-old daughter, Giorgia Sommacal, also died during the dive

An operation is now underway to recover their bodies from the perilous section of cave.

The dangers of the Vaavu Atoll cave

An ex-military diver has spoken about the dangers of the third chamber and why the cave is so ‘unforgiving’.

“I have visited those caves countless times. There is no current. They swam into that third cave. They chose to go in there,” Shafraz Naeem claimed to the Daily Mail.

“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.”

The incident is believed to be the worst single diving accident in the Maldives

The cave in question is divided into three chambers, which are all connected via tight passages. At its opening, the cave is reported to be 55 metres (180 feet) in depth, which is deeper than the 30 metre (100 foot) limit in the Maldives.

However, Mohamed Hossain Shareef, a Maldivian government spokesperson, told the BBC that Montefalcone’s team had a permit for their scientific work, allowing them to descend to 50 metres.

‘What we didn’t know was that it was cave diving’

He explained that they had permission to study coral, but no mention of a cave had been submitted.

“What we didn’t know was that it was cave diving,” Shareef said. “Because, as divers will tell you and appreciate, it’s a very different discipline with its own sets of challenges and risks involved, and particularly at that depth, there are any number of things that could have gone wrong.”

Diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti was among those who died (Albatros Top Boat)

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

Naeem explained he has never entered the third chamber, due to concerns over its dangers.

“The cave is unforgiving. It is closed, pitch-black and you can only see where you shine the light,” he said.

“If something goes wrong, you cannot shoot up to the surface like you can in open dives. You are stopped and restricted, and, at that depth of below 55m [181ft], it is just completely dangerous.”

Muriel Oddenino was one of the divers who died

Federico Gualtieri died in the ‘shark cave’

A lawyer representing the tour operator in charge of the dive has explained that they deny authorizing or being aware of the dive having breached the local limits in the Maldives, as per Corriere della Sera.

An investigation into exactly what happened is still ongoing.