Billionaire Musk’s rant at rescue hero
He hits back after being told to ‘stick his submarine’
INVENTOR Elon Musk last night launched a stinging attack on one of the British divers who saved the lives of the trapped Thai boys.
The billionaire Tesla founder bizarrely questioned the heroics of Vern Unsworth, the caving expert who helped lead last week’s dramatic rescue.
A war of words broke out between the men over the weekend when expat Mr Unsworth, 63, said a six-foot (1.8 metres) submarine offered to the team by Mr Musk had ‘absolutely no chance of working’.
The diver told CNN: ‘He can stick his submarine where it hurts.
‘He had no conception of what the cave passage was like. The submarine, I believe, was about 5ft 6in long, rigid, so it wouldn’t have gone round corners or round any obstacles. It wouldn’t have made the first 50m into the cave from the dive start point. [It was] just a PR stunt.’
Mr Unsworth, originally from St Albans in England, said Mr Musk, 47, was ‘asked to leave very quickly’ after he delivered the vessel to the Tham Luang caverns in Chiang Rai last Tues- day, adding, ‘And so he should have been’. In response, Mr Musk hit back on Twitter.
He wrote: ‘Never saw this British expat guy who lives in Thailand at any point when we were in the caves. Only people in sight were the Thai navy/army
‘Never saw this guy at any point’
guys, who were great. Thai navy SEALs escorted us in – total opposite of wanting us to leave.
‘Water level was actually very low and still (not flowing) – you could literally have swum to Cave 5 with no gear, which is obviously how the kids got in.’
He added: ‘If not true, then I challenge this dude to show final rescue video.
‘You know what, don’t bother showing the video. We will make one of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo.’
Mr Musk then posted screenshots of what he said was an email conversation with Coventry-based diver Rick Stanton, another of the lead group.
In it, Mr Stanton says: ‘It is absolutely worth continuing with the development of this system... If the rains hold out it may well be used’, before adding: ‘We’re worried about the smallest lad. Please keep working on the capsule details.’
Mr Musk, who is worth €17billion, also suggested the rescue team could weave a one-metrewide escape tunnel through the narrow caves to the 12 boys and their coach.
But caving expert Professor John Gunn, from the University of Birmingham, said: ‘If you imagine a tunnel under London flooded, this would be straight with a few bends.
‘However, this is more like asking to thread a pipe through all the aisles of a supermarket, up the stairs, down the stairs and then back through the aisles – in total darkness and underwater.
‘If he was proposing the pipe is moved by divers, then I think that’s a non-starter.’
Mr Unsworth declined to comment last night.