2026-05-21T08:16:00-0400 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
打捞遇难者遗体的公司首席执行官周四表示，在马尔代夫潜水事故中丧生的五名意大利人可能在从水下洞穴撤离时误入了错误的隧道。
据意大利《共和国报》报道，为欧洲潜水警报网（DAN Europe）工作的芬兰潜水员在一处位于水下约165英尺的洞穴群内的死胡同走廊中发现了这些意大利潜水员的遗体。
《共和国报》援引该公司首席执行官劳拉·马罗尼的话称：“那里根本没有出路。”
经确认，遇难的意大利潜水员分别是：热那亚大学生态学副教授莫妮卡·蒙特法尔科内、她的女儿乔治亚·索马卡尔、海洋生物学家费德里科·瓜尔蒂耶里、研究员穆里尔·奥登迪诺以及潜水教练吉安卢卡·贝内德蒂。另有一名参与搜救失踪意大利人的马尔代夫军事潜水员遇难。
热那亚大学周五在一份声明中表示，蒙特法尔科内和奥登迪诺当时正在马尔代夫执行官方科学任务，监测海洋环境并研究气候变化对热带生物多样性的影响。
马罗尼告诉该报，芬兰潜水员在阿里马塔附近发现的洞穴入口是一个宽敞明亮的大洞穴，底部为沙地。
这个大洞穴的尽头是一条光线昏暗的走廊，但“借助人工照明，能见度极佳”，她说道。
这条走廊长近30米，宽3米，通往洞穴的第二个 chamber——一个没有自然光的大型圆形空间。
走廊和第二个空间之间有一片沙坝。
报道称，越过沙坝进入第二个空间并不困难，但当潜水员转身准备离开时，这片沙坝看起来几乎像一堵墙，将走廊遮挡了起来。
沙坝左侧还有一条仅几十米长的另一条走廊。
“潜水员的遗体都被发现在这条走廊内，似乎他们误将其当成了正确的撤离通道，”报道称。
马罗尼表示，如果他们误选了这条走廊，“那么返回将会非常困难，尤其是在氧气供应有限的情况下”。
她表示，这些潜水员使用的是标准气瓶，这意味着他们在该深度停留的时间非常有限。
“我们说的是10分钟，甚至更少，”马罗尼说道。
“意识到走了错误的路线，又没多少氧气，或许还在原地来回折返，这太可怕了。随后你会呼吸急促，氧气供应会进一步减少，”她说道。
2026年5月19日，在马累，红新月会应急救援人员和警方人员将意大利遇难游客的遗体从警用快艇转移至救护车。穆罕默德·阿夫拉h / 法新社 via 盖蒂图片社
据意大利外交部消息，当时共有25名意大利游客乘坐“约克公爵号”游艇，其中包括5名遇难潜水员。
潜水员超出了推荐极限
马尔代夫当局正在调查，为何这些意大利潜水员得以下潜至60米深度——这个印度洋岛国允许游客的最大下潜深度为30米。
洞穴潜水是一项技术性极强且危险的活动，需要专门的训练、装备和严格的安全规程。在潜水员无法直接上浮的环境和深度下，风险会急剧增加，尤其是在条件不佳的情况下。专家表示，在洞穴内很容易迷失方向或迷路，尤其是当泥沙扬起大幅降低能见度时。
当地官员称，这起事故是马尔代夫历史上最严重的单一潜水事故。马尔代夫由1192个小型珊瑚岛组成，散布在印度洋赤道附近约500英里的海域内。
尽管近年来已报告多起致命事故，但在这个南亚国家，潜水及水上运动相关事故相对较少。
去年12月，一名英国女游客在潜水时遇难，她71岁的悲痛丈夫随后患病，并在几天后去世。
今年6月，一名26岁的日本游客在首都附近的潜水探险后失踪。
当地媒体报道称，过去六年间，该群岛已有至少112名游客在海洋相关事故中丧生，其中42人死于潜水或浮潜事故。
Divers killed in Maldives cave may have taken wrong tunnel, recovery firm CEO says: “No way out”
2026-05-21T08:16:00-0400 / CBS News
Five Italians killed in a Maldives diving incident may have taken the wrong tunnel on their way out of an underwater cave, the head of the company that recovered their bodies said Thursday.
Finnish divers working for DAN Europe found the Italians in a corridor with a dead end inside the cave complex, which sits about 165 feet underwater, Italy’s la Repubblica daily reported.
“There was no way out from there,” the company’s CEO Laura Marroni was quoted by la Repubblica as saying.
The Italian divers were identified as Monica Montefalcone, an associate ecology professor at the University of Genoa; her daughter Giorgia Sommacal; marine biologist Federico Gualtieri; researcher Muriel Oddenino; and diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti. A Maldivian military diver also died while searching for the missing Italians.
Montefalcone and Oddenino were in the Maldives on an official scientific mission to monitor marine environments and study the effects of climate change on tropical biodiversity, the University of Genoa said in a statement Friday.
The Finnish divers found the cave near Alimatha begins with a large, very bright cavern with a sandy bottom, Marroni told the newspaper.
At the end of this room is a corridor where there is little light, but “visibility, using artificial lighting, was excellent,” she said.
The corridor is almost 30 meters long and 3 meters across and leads to a second chamber of the cave, which is a large, round space with no natural light.
Between the corridor and the second chamber is a sandbank.
It is easy to get over the sandbank into the second chamber, but when you turn around to leave again the bank almost looks like a wall, hiding the corridor, the paper said.
On the left of the sandbank is another corridor — only a few dozen meters long.
“The divers’ bodies were all found inside, as if they had mistaken it for the right one,” the paper said.
If they had taken that corridor by mistake, “then it would have been very difficult to return, especially with the limited air supply,” Marroni said.
The divers were using standard tanks, meaning they had very little time at that depth to visit the second cave, she said.
“We’re talking about 10 minutes, maybe even less,” Marroni said.
“Realizing that the path is the wrong one and having little air, perhaps after going back and forth, is terrifying. Then you breathe quickly and the air supply decreases,” she said.
Red Crescent emergency responders and police personnel transfer the bodies of Italian tourists from a police speed boat to an ambulance in Male on May 19, 2026. Mohamed Afrah /AFP via Getty Images
According to Italy’s foreign ministry, 25 Italian tourists were on board the “Duke of York” yacht, including the five divers who died.
Divers exceeded recommended limits
Authorities in the Maldives are investigating how the Italians were allowed to descend to a depth of 60 meters when the Indian Ocean country permits a maximum depth of 30 meters for tourists.
Cave diving is a highly technical and dangerous activity that requires specialized training, equipment and strict safety protocols. Risks increase sharply in environments where divers cannot head straight up and at depth, particularly when conditions are poor. Experts say it’s easy to become disoriented or lost inside caves, particularly as sediment clouds can sharply reduce visibility.
Local officials called the incident the worst single diving accident in the history of the Maldives, a nation of 1,192 tiny coral islands scattered some 500 miles across the equator in the Indian Ocean.
Diving and water sport-related accidents appear to be relatively rare in the South Asian nation, although several fatal incidents have been reported in recent years.
A British female tourist died while diving in December, and her distraught 71-year-old husband died a few days later after falling ill.
A 26-year-old Japanese tourist went missing after a diving expedition near the capital in June.
Local media reports said at least 112 tourists had died in marine-related incidents in the archipelago in the past six years, with 42 of them falling victim to diving or snorkeling accidents.
