Oxygen toxicity, panic may have led to deaths of 5 tourists on scuba dive in Maldives: experts

Oxygen toxicity and sheer panic are among the potential factors that could have led to the deaths of five Italian tourists who vanished on a daring scuba dive in the Maldives, experts say.

Pulmonologist Claudio Micheletto told the Italian outlet Adnkronos Thursday that “it’s likely that something went wrong with the tanks,” as all five divers died on the same 160-foot excursion in the waters of Vaavu Atoll, which sparked a police investigation.

“Death from oxygen toxicity, or hyperoxia, is one of the most dramatic deaths that can occur during a dive – a horrible end,” Micheletto, the director of pulmonology at the University Hospital of Verona, added.

Scuba divers generally breathe compressed air – which is composed of 21 percent oxygen and 79 percent nitrogen – from a tank, but sometimes may turn to