The five Italian divers who drowned in the Maldives last week might have taken a wrong turn and panicked underwater in the cave with no clear way out, as per the elite squad sent in to retrieve their bodies.
The bodies of Monica Montefalcone and her daughter, with three others, were found on Monday near the mouth of the third and the final chamber of the caves in the Vaavu Atoll at a depth of nearly 165 feet.
The body of their diving instructor was found near the entrance to the same chamber.
This cave system entails a first chamber linked to a second by a corridor nearly 100 feet long and 10 feet wide, as shared by Italian media outlets.
Once they were inside the second chamber, the entrance to the corridor was hidden by a sandbank, and just above that is the entrance to the third chamber, which is considered to be a dead end.
The group of Italians appeared to have entered the third chamber by mistake and panicked when they realized that there was no way out before running out of oxygen.