Cave diver considers suing Musk

A British caver hailed a hero for helping to save the lives of 12 boys and their football coach trapped deep inside a Thai cave has said he may take action against Elon Musk after the billionaire entrepreneur called him a “pedo” online.

The Tesla CEO lashed out on Monday at Vernon Unsworth, 63, on Twitter after the cave diver scoffed at Musk’s offer of a specialised miniature submarine to evacuate the boys through a twisted and dangerously flooded underground passageway.

Unsworth, who has mapped the Tham Luang cave network for years and who played a pivotal role in the rescue operation to dive the boys to safety, dismissed the submarine idea as a “PR stunt” in an interview with CNN, quipping thatMusk could stick the invention “where it hurts”.

His comments were not wellreceived by Musk, who had travelled to Thailand last week at the height of the crisis to present his submarine to the rescue teams.

In a stream of tweets Musk first told his 22 million-strong Twitter following that he “never saw this British expat guy who lives in Thailand (sus) at any point when we were in the caves”. By “sus” Musk was presumed to have meant “suspect”. He later wrote: “Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it,” he said.

Unsworth told AFP yesterday that he had not reviewed the tweets in full. Asked if he would take legal action, he said: “If it’s what I think it is, yes.” The caver added that he would make a decision when he flies back toBritain this week, but said the episode with Musk “ain’t finished”.