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Int'l rescue effort closes in on soccer team trapped for 9 days in a flooded Thai cave


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This is reading like some sort of surreal MacGyver episode on steroids now that Elon Musk is involved. Reading the posts like the ones he made above make me hope he is the genius everyone says he is. I hope it all works out and no one else is lost. So incredibly intense.

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I don’t understand and don’t have access to cable news. 

How is a hull filled with air not going to be too buoyant or too heavy when weighed down? And then how is it supposed to fit through these small passages that won’t even fit a diver and his tanks?

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How is a hull filled with air not going to be too buoyant or too heavy when weighed down?

 

Musk is fucking this one up and he just needs to shut up. Their watertight colon would suffocate those boys and his stupid mini sub from rocket tanks will never be ready in time.

 

They need to pump and drill. Also, don't forget my induced coma idea. Occam's razor and all.

 

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11 minutes ago, bluto said:

Another story came out a few min ago about a van going off a cliff carrying 10 rescue workers 

That could be anywhere in the world. At this point we're all rescue workers, diligently trying to find a way for these kids to gtfo of that cave. Has anyone called the Mexican coyotes or the cartels? Just tell them there are kids on one side of a border that need to get to the other side and they'll have them out in no time. Mother Phuket.

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2 hours ago, woohorn said:

 

 

 

 

 

Musk is fucking this one up and he just needs to shut up. Their watertight colon would suffocate those boys and his stupid mini sub from rocket tanks will never be ready in time.

 

They need to pump and drill. Also, don't forget my induced coma idea. Occam's razor and all.

 

I just finished pumping and drilling your mother.

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/07/thai-cave-boys-rescue-youth-football-team-180708045142469.html

 

Quote

 

A rescue mission has begun to evacuate a youth football team and their coach from a cave in northern Thailand, where they have been trapped for two weeks.

Diving teams and medical personnel entered the cave at 10am (03:00 GMT), rescue mission chief Narongsak Osottanakorn told reporters on Sunday.

Thirteen foreign divers and five Thai Navy SEAL divers are taking part in the rescue mission, which could take two to four days, officials said.

Each boy will be accompanied by two divers. It will take at least 11 hours for the first person to be rescued, meaning the first member of the team could come out at 9pm (14:00 GMT) at the earliest. 

Only diving teams, medics and security forces remain at the entrance of the cave, as all non-essential staff and members of the media have been cleared from the site.

The Wild Boar football team went exploring in the Tham Luang cave network after a football game on June 23 and was trapped kilometres deep inside the cave system as floodwaters caused by heavy rains blocked the entrance.

The 12 children, aged 11 to 16, are accompanied by their coach, Ekkapol Chantawong, 25.

The group was found, dishevelled and emaciated but alive, on a muddy ledge by rescue divers on Monday. Rescue workers struggled to find a way to extract the team from the cave.

Conditions perfect

On Saturday, rescue mission chief Osottanakorn said conditions were "perfect" to evacuate the team in the coming days before fresh rains and a possible rise in carbon dioxide further imperil the group.

Rescuers have conceded that evacuating the boys is a race against time, with monsoon rains expected to undo days of around-the-clock drainage of the flooded cave.

"Now and in the next three or four days, the conditions are perfect [for evacuation] in terms of the water, the weather and the boys' health," Osottanakorn told reporters.

"We have to make a clear decision on what we can do."

Reporting from Chiang Rai, Al Jazeera's Scott Heidler said it had started raining again on Sunday. 

"It's about rain falling here, but it's also about rain falling in the area," he said. 

"It's a massive cave network and this is a big mountain range, so water can travel to the cave from distances." 

While the oxygen level had stabilised, he warned that levels of carbon dioxide in the cave were a vital factor in considering when to move the group. In addition, the impending rains could raise the water levels to cover much of the muddy ledge on which the group are sheltering.

"The water level may rise to the area where the children are sitting and make the area less than 10sq meters," Osottanakorn said, citing estimates from cave divers and experts.

In the early hours of Saturday morning, he said the boys were not yet ready to dive out of the cave, a complex and dangerous task through twisting and jagged submerged passageways.

But his comments 12 hours later suggest the thinking had changed, with water levels inside the cave currently managed to their lowest point by constant drainage.

Industrial pumps have been working incessantly in an attempt to clear the tunnels and, hopefully, allow them to escape by foot.

After emerging from the cave, the boys will be taken straight into a waiting ambulance which will drive them to a nearby helipad. From there, they will be flown to the provincial capital of Chiang Rai for treatment in a hospital there. 

'Still fine'

In notes written by the team and published on the Thai Navy SEAL Facebook page on Saturday, the coach apologised to the parents of the boys for taking them into the cave complex during monsoon season.  

"To all the parents, all the kids are still fine. I promise to take the very best care of the kids," Chantawong wrote. 

"Thank you for all the moral support and I apologise to the parents."

The coach's role in the team's predicament has split Thai social media. Many have lauded him after reports emerged of him giving his share of food to the children before they were located and helping them get through nine days in darkness.

Other touching notes signed by members of the team were directed to their families, many of whom have kept an anxious vigil outside the cave for a fortnight.

"Love to Mum, Dad and my little brother," reads one note from 15-year-old Phiphat Photi - who is better known as "Nick".

"If I get out, please can you bring me some grilled pork and vegetables?"

 

 


 

 
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Just now, Ten Bears said:

England is going to win the World Cup AND save the Thai Soccer boys?  

I'll bet you 20 million Thai Bahts (that's about tree fiddy in U.S. $) that these kids will get comped to the FIFA final.  I'm okay with that, but not the asst. corch.  Fuck that guy.

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8 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

I'll bet you 20 million Thai Bahts (that's about tree fiddy in U.S. $) that these kids will get comped to the FIFA final.  I'm okay with that, but not the asst. corch.  Fuck that guy.

Supposedly the rainy season started several weeks earlier than expected. They just got caught at the beginning of it.

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2 minutes ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

Supposedly the rainy season started several weeks earlier than expected. They just got caught at the beginning of it.

1) Officially, the rainy season in Thailand runs from mid-May through mid-October, with the peak coming in July-August.  This wasn't a late occurrence.
2) As has been posted here a lot, there were umpteen warning signs and the local common knowledge about going into the caves during this time of year.  The boys did it on a dare, which isn't uncommon there, but an adult having supervision over that group should never have allowed them to go in the first place, especially to play the "name game" where they go to the back of the opening chamber to show they were there.  Nope, even though he was great at helping them survive, it was his fault, period, that they got into the mess. 

He can watch it on TV.  It'll be interesting to see if he comes under any negligence charges, but probably not, since apparently it isn't downright illegal to go in there, just stupid.  Sign out front shoulda told ya...

 

warning_sign_thai.jpg

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This is excellent news to wake up to.

I was one of the posters kinda frustrated that this happened as a dare, particularly with the adult coach involved. After thinking about it some more, I’ve realized it’s entirely possible the boys went charging in and the coach was stuck chasing after them. We’ll probably never know the exact circumstances, but I guess it’s a little unfair on my part to assume the coach was eagerly supporting their quest to explore the cave.

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9 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

Guy on BBC just now is saying that going into that cave is something that hundreds if not thousands of tourists had done. He seemed to indicate that what this group ran into was just bad luck.

Rainy season - bad luck

multiple warning signs - bad luck

Disregard #1 responsibility in charge of young men - bad luck

 

that BBC guy is sharp!

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Rainy season - bad luck
multiple warning signs - bad luck
Disregard #1 responsibility in charge of young men - bad luck
 
that BBC guy is sharp!


I hear ya. And I agree.

But we don’t know anything about that area. There’s a popular rock climbing spot in Atlanta that requires you to bypass fences and warning signs and part of a river. Loads of people have been doing it for decades.

I just find it interesting that almost no one in Thailand wants the coach’s head.
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3 minutes ago, Buzzrock said:

 


I hear ya. And I agree.

But we don’t know anything about that area. There’s a popular rock climbing spot in Atlanta that requires you to bypass fences and warning signs and part of a river. Loads of people have been doing it for decades.

I just find it interesting that almost no one in Thailand wants the coach’s head.

 

 

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