The sole survivor of the scuba diving group that perished in the Maldives reportedly changed her mind at the last minute and decided to stay onboard the yacht.

The deaths of no less than five Italian divers in a scuba diving accident last Thursday in Vaavu Atoll, in the Indian Ocean archipelago, has shocked the world. With the tragic mystery still unfolding, one Maldivian military rescue diver died shortly after from decompression sickness during a subsequent recovery mission.

As per Italian outlet liberoquotidiano.it, a sixth Italian diver had originally prepared to dive alongside the rest of the ill-fated group. Yet the unnamed woman, a student at the University of Genoa, changed her mind and stayed aboard the Duke of York yacht.

The woman has since been described as the “only direct survivor of that day” and is now being considered a “key witness for reconstructing the final moments before the accident.”

The five divers who lost their lives included University of Genoa marine biology professor Monica Montefalcone and her 20-year-old daughter Giorgia Sommacal.

The other victims were named as Muriel Oddenino, Gianluca Benedetti, and Federico Gualtieri.

At the time of writing, it’s unclear as to why the aforementioned student abandoned initial plans to join the rest of the team, who are believed to have descended to around 160 feet into an underwater cave close to Alimatha island.

Authorities, meanwhile, have said there were around two dozen non-crew members on board the Duke of York throughout Thursday.

Reportedly, the Vaavu Atoll cave diving disaster ranks as the deadliest single diving incident in the history of the Maldives. Various experts have weighed in on what could have killed the group, with theories including oxygen toxicity and panic inside the underwater cave system.

Pulmonologist Claudio Micheletto told Italian news agency Adnkronos: “It’s likely that something went wrong with the tanks.”

He continued: “Death from oxygen toxicity, or hyperoxia, is one of the most dramatic deaths that can occur during a dive — a horrible end.”

Alfonso Bolognini, president of the Italian Society of Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine, stated that panic could have contributed to the disaster.

“Inside a cave at a depth of 50 meters, all it takes is a problem for a diver or a panic attack for a diver,” Bolognini explained.

Rest in peace to those who lost their lives in this tragic accident.

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