Musk helps in the rescue

● Elon Musk, the South Africa-born billionaire entrepreneur, has sent engineers from his companies, SpaceX and The Boring Company, to Thailand to help with the rescue.

Musk outlined a detailed strategy using his companies’ pumps, battery packs and tubes to help the boys escape from the cave where they have been trapped for two weeks.

He suggested inserting a 1m-diameter nylon tube through the cave network and inflating it with air “like a bouncy castle” to create an air tunnel underwater, allowing the children to walk through it and duck through the narrow sections.

His idea comes amid increasingly desperate efforts to free the boys through the onerous method of draining water from a 4kmlong twisting and submerged labyrinth of tunnels separating them from the exit.

Narongsak Osottanakorn, the governor of Chang Rai province, in which the caves lie, said: “We have plans and options, but if the situation changes we have to adapt to it.”

A successful extraction would be a huge boost to rescuers, who were mourning the death of diver Saman Kunan, 38, a volunteer and former Thai Navy Seal.

He died on his way out of the cave complex after delivering air tanks to different locations along the submerged route.

“He did not have enough on his way back,” said deputy Chang Rai governor Passakorn Boonyalak.

This tragedy underlined how dangerous it would be to get the boys to dive through winding, dark passages.

“Inside the cave is tough,” said Rear Admiral Arpakorn Yookongkaew, the Thai Seal commander. But, he said, “I can guarantee that we will not stop our mission”. — © The Daily Telegraph, London