The Tourism Ministry has suspended the operating license of the safari that took a group of foreigners on a diving excursion in Vaavu Atoll, an incident that ended in tragedy.
The Ministry suspended the license of M/Y Duke of York indefinitely as it further investigates the incident due to its seriousness
Five divers who went to explore an underwater cave at a depth of 60 ft were reported missing last Thursday. The body of one of the divers was discovered on Thursday, and the other four remain missing as authorities suspect that they were stuck in the 200ft long cave.
All five divers were Italian nationals.
Yesterday, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu conveyed his deepest condolences to the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, and to the people of Italy, following the tragic diving incident in Vaavu Atoll
In a post on X, President Dr Muizzu expressed his profound sorrow and extended his thoughts and prayers to the bereaved family, to the families of the four Italian nationals who remain missing, and to all those affected.
The President affirmed that the search for the missing divers remains the highest priority of the Government of the Maldives, and conveyed his appreciation to the government of Italy for its support in the ongoing recovery operation.
Hardly the fault of the vessel or the folk already booked on future trips on the Duke of York. It's like grounding an aircraft because a sky diver lost his life due to a parachute malfunction. These divers left the vessel perfectly healthy and committed to a dive that to some extent was an extreme dive in less than perfect conditions with minimum back up or bail out redundancy and with a range of diving experience and training. In effect it was a stunt dive on the final days of a student holiday.