WORLD AWAITS
Divers brave cave dangers
THE second phase of the cave rescue mission was last night under way, with a group of boys making their way out of the cave system and expected to arrive into the arms of medics.
A tight-lipped Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn declined to say how many boys were being extricated, but he said the rescuers had streamlined their operations and expected things to move rapidly from now.
“Today (Monday), we started evacuating boys at 11am and they will be out tonight,” the governor said.
“Last night (Sunday) I said we needed 20 hours to set up and then execute the mission, after which we can execute the mission.
“But our set-up conditions are better, and everything is being readied faster than expected.”
He stressed that those running the rescue mission needed “full rest, time to re-tension the life line and to check the equipment”.
The main issue facing res- cuers – apart from extreme low visibility and the dual issue of oxygen depletion and carbon monoxide overload in the cave’s chambers – is a dangerous choke point about 1km from where the remaining boys are trapped on a muddy ledge.
It requires divers to lead the boys down a narrow tunnel, at points only 70cm wide, then crawl up above the water level, then down another tunnel once again into a deep pool.
It appears the rescue team, involving 50 foreign and 40 Thai divers, are mastering this obstacle.
Asked if the Australian anaesthetist and diver, Richard Harris, had been helping assess the boys, Narongsak said: “Every day.”
He said the four boys rescued on Sunday had been taken to Chiang Rai hospital. They were hungry,” he said. “They ate rice with pork and basil. They are currently being quarantined.”
Narongsak also expressed anger that media had breached the rescue team’s security by eavesdropping on their closed walkie-talkie channels, and complained that a drone had chased a military helicopter. The Tham Luang cave network has, until now, been little understood by speleogists, who are fast getting a lesson on the 10km system’s twists and turns.
The professional divers are leading the boys out in pairs, with two divers escorting each boy and holding his tank to make his journey easier.
Local television showed footage of air tanks being winched through the cave on rope pulleys as they started to attack the next phase of the mission, while a number off defibrillators were sent in the event of diver collapse.
Early yesterday, a rescuer at the site tweeted: “Started to transport air bottles, the medic team is in place, ready to take 4-6 boar out soon. Cloudy skies but not yet rain. But if it rains we don’t care – it will have no impact.”
The rescuer was referring to the Moo Pa Academy soccer squad, which translates as “wild boar”.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha refused to be drawn on how long the rescue mission would take, other than to say “we will do it as soon as possible, in the safest way”.