‘Everyone is strong in mind and heart’
As boys recover, details emerge of their perilous trip
MAE SAI, THAILAND • The Thai boys saved from a flooded cave endured dives in zero visibility lasting up to half an hour and in places were put in a harness and high-lined across rocky caverns, said a leader of the U.S. contingent that was part of the operation, calling it a “once-in-a-lifetime rescue.”
Derek Anderson, a 32-year-old rescue specialist with the U.S. Air Force based in Okinawa, Japan, said the dozen boys, ranging in age from 11 to 16, and their coach, who were trapped for more than two weeks, were “incredibly resilient.”
The complicated operation to bring the boys out of the cave began on Sunday, when four were extracted. Four more were brought out on Monday, and the operation ended Tuesday with the rescue of the last four boys and their 25-year-old coach.
The 12 rescued boys made two-finger victory signs from their hospital beds on Wednesday in a moving video from the isolation ward where they’re recuperating from their 18-day ordeal.
The youngest, 11, appeared asleep under a crisp white sheet. Others, including their coach, sat in bed, their faces obscured by green surgical masks.
Parents watched and waved from behind a glass barrier, their faces vivid with emotion.
“Everyone is strong in mind and heart,” said Chai- wetch Thanapaisal, director of Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital.
The scale of the challenge confronting rescuers from Thailand, Britain, Australia and other countries only truly dawned on the U.S. team after it arrived at the cave in the early hours of June 28 as rain poured down on the region.
“The cave was dry when we arrived, and within an hour and half it had already filled up by two to three feet and we were being pushed out,” said Anderson, the son of missionaries, who was born in Syracuse, New York.
Thailand’s decision to dive the boys out despite their weak condition and lack of diving experience was made when a window of opportunity was provided by relatively mild weather. A massive operation to pump water out also meant air pockets were created at crucial points, making a rescue possible.
Falling oxygen levels, risk of sickness and the imminent prospect of more rain flooding the cave complex for months meant “the longterm survivability of the boys in the cave was becoming a less and less feasible option,” Anderson said.
Divers practised their rescue techniques in a swimming pool with local chil- dren about the same height and weight as the members of the Wild Boars soccer team trapped in the cave.
The aim, Anderson said, was to make each of the boys “tightly packaged” so divers could keep control of them and adjust their air supply as needed. The process lasted hours for each boy, and involved them getting through long passageways barely bigger than an adult body.
Buoyancy compensators that establish neutral buoyancy underwater, hooded wetsuits, bungee cords and special face masks were carried by divers to the cramped patch of dry elevated ground where the boys were huddled.
The positive pressure masks were “really crucial,” Anderson said. Their use meant that even if a boy panicked — perhaps because of getting snagged in a narrow passage — and got water inside his mask, the pressure wouldexpelit.
There were about a hundred people inside the cave for each rescue operation, Anderson said, and each boy was handled by dozens of people as their perilous movement through a total of nine chambers unfolded.
In some phases they were guided by two divers. In some narrow passages they were connected to only one diver. In caverns with air pockets they were “floated” through with the support of four rescuers. Some sections were completely dry but treacherously rocky or deep.
“The world just needs to know that what was accomplished was a once-in-alifetime rescue that I think has never been done before,” Anderson said. “We were extremely fortunate that the outcome was the way it was. It’s important to realize how complex and how many pieces of this puzzle had to come together.”
“If you lose your cool in an environment like that, there is a lot of bad repercussions,” hesaid.
Even at the very end there was danger. Just hours after the last boy had been evacuated, water pumps draining the area began to fail.
Rescue workers and divers were still 1.5 km inside the cave when water levels began to “noticeably” rise due to the main pump failing, according to The Guardian.
THE WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW THAT WHATWAS ACCOMPLISHED WAS A ONCE-IN-ALIFETIME RESCUE.