From la Repubblica, a story of the deceased divers from the Maldives. A Finnish team managed to recover the final two deceased divers yesterday. All four of the remaining divers were located in the same chamber, more than 200 feet below the surface, and more than 300 linear feet inside the cave. The rescue team has given some insight into what happened to the missing divers. To understand what happened, a map of the underwater cave.
This is a diagram of the cave system, as seen from above, looking down. The divers entered the cave from the right, off of the frame.
The divers entered the cave system at a depth of 180 feet. The cave begins with a first large, very bright cavern with a sandy bottom. It would seem enticing to go further, as this looks very inviting.
They swam through a connecting tunnel from the first chamber to the second. This connecting tunnel is almost 100 feet long, ten feet across, and just three feet tall. It led to the second chamber of the cave, which is a large, round space with no natural light. This second chamber had a depth of over 200 feet. The interior of this chamber would be completely cut off from daylight, and the only visibility would be provided by any handheld lights that the divers had brought with them. The inside of such a chamber is a confusing jumble of rocks, with one rock looking much like any other rock. Even though the water in here was clear, it was a dark, confusing maze of rocks and sand.
At some point, they entered the third chamber (which was a dead end with no way out) through another tunnel whose entrance was right next to the connecting tunnel leading back to the first chamber and the exit. The Finnish team notes that the exit tunnel’s opening was partially obscured from view from the vantage point of a diver in the second chamber by a large pile of sand. 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 from view. The team believes that the divers mistook the tunnel leading to the dead end and their literal death for the tunnel that would lead them to safety.
The divers were only equipped with 80 cubic feet of breathing air. At 200 feet, they would breathe through that supply at 7 times the rate of the surface. By the time they had penetrated the cave to that point, they likely had a minute or two of air left before they all drowned from lack of air.
This reinforces my opinion of what I think happened. These divers were diving beyond their training, experience, and equipment. Had they been properly equipped and trained, they would have stretched a guideline as they went and wouldn’t have gotten lost. They would have had more than just 80 cubic feet of breathing gas, and they wouldn’t be dead.
This was diver error, plain and simple. As I said before, the ocean is an outright jealous bitch, and she shows no mercy to those who do not give her the respect she deserves.
EDITED TO ADD
One of the things that gets me, although it shouldn’t at this point, are the social media experts who are claiming this team had tons of training and experience, so something else must have happened. I have seen theories ranging from “they had bad air” to rogue currents (although how a current runs through a dead end cave, they don’t explain), and even one that claims they were drug there by a large squid to be used as food.
I am not the only experienced diver who actually knows better. It doesn’t take any special disaster to have made this happen- just a combination of inadequate training and experience combined with arrogance of Dunning Krueger and a dangerous environment with a very small margin of error, and that’s all you need.
7 Comments
Beans · May 21, 2026 at 12:38 pm
Sounds like they had no caving experience at all. No backup air, no excess number of lights (in cave or wreck diving, 2 is none and 4 is one. My dive instructor said he carried 5-6 lights, just in case.) And no line.
Dumbasses. The real tragedy is the death of the one recovery diver. Who also seems to not have followed standard instructions.
Grumpy51 · May 22, 2026 at 6:35 pm
When the offspring was 14, she got her SCUBA (SDI). I dove with her on every dive until she turned 21. (I refer you back to the 12-year-old girl who died in August 2025 outside Terrell TX when the instructor wasn’t in the water. We’ve dove that park and visibility was about 10-15’.
The various classes for “Advanced Open Water” today were all the information I learned with NAUI in 1980. So yes, money driven. But the kid wasn’t old enough at the time to understand the math and physics involved.
Saying all this to say – the other tragedy was the daughter who would’ve felt safe diving with mom. So if mom makes a bad decision, both of them have a bad day. My kid was (un)fortunate enough to have a emergency services dad and ICU mom, so understanding the bad things was expected. And learning how to mitigate the risks……
LargeMarge · May 21, 2026 at 7:34 pm
Decades ago during discussions prior to Cave Diving classes, all inexperienced Open Water divers agreed on:
a : spare full tanks at intervals along the route
b : at least two guide-lines anchored outside the entrance.
c : lights in your hands (plural), lights on your vest (plural), lights on your belt (plural)
… and most important of all
d : giant squid are playful and never hungry.
Stealth Spaniel · May 21, 2026 at 7:57 pm
This is why yahoos have no business going places that they don’t belong. I am terrified of diving. I am competent enough to swim in placid water-think a pool. I wouldn’t stick a toe beyond my waist in the ocean. Know your limits! I am a yahoo and I admit it when it comes to swimming/diving. The thought of diving, let alone going through those caves with no lights, no guideline rope-yikes! What is wrong with people?
C · May 22, 2026 at 8:28 pm
Of course they’d say squid. The MCB can’t let it get out that a luska is in the area.
Snuffy · May 24, 2026 at 11:58 pm
All the latest articles in the MSM claim the same thing. ” They were 15 minutes from the surface”. I’m thinking that’s false. Am I correct?
Divemedic · May 25, 2026 at 6:17 am
They would have to make their way out of the cave, then it’s a 3 minute ascent (60 feet per minute max rate) plus stops for decompression.
Running the simulator for a 160 foot dive at 20 minutes shows a decompression obligation of:
40 feet for 2 minutes
30 feet for 3 minutes
20 feet for 6 minutes on 80 percent oxygen
10 feet for 12 minutes on 80 percent oxygen
So total ascent time would be on the order of 26 minutes, not counting the time it took to exit the cave, and also assuming unlimited breathing gas and only 20 minutes underwater. Not using 80% oxygen for the last two stops and using air instead doubles all of the above times.
Violating this would likely result in a diver getting decompression illness, also known as the bends (you will hear divers call that “getting bent”)
What astounds me on the stupidity of this dive was knowing that the divers all had diving computers that would have been warning them the entire time.
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