How the ordeal unfolded
Mae Sai – A day-by-day look at the ordeal of 12 boys and their soccer coach, who were trapped deep inside a flooded cave in northern Thailand for more than two weeks:
June 23: After a morning practice, 12 members of the local Wild Boars youth soccer team bicycle with their 25-year-old coach to the Tham Luang Nang Non cave to explore, when heavy rains begin. When none of the boys return home after dark, parents report them as missing. Their bicycles are found at the cave entrance as a search begins at midnight.
June 24: Search and rescue teams find soccer shoes and backpacks left behind near the cave entrance.
June 25: Handprints and footprints thought to belong to the boys are found farther from the cave entrance.
June 26: About a dozen Thai Navy Seals and others searchers penetrate the cave, but are handicapped by muddy water that has filled some chambers.
June 27: More heavy rainfall stymies search efforts, flooding underground passages.
June 28: Efforts begin to drain groundwater by drilling from outside into the mountain. A search for other entrances intensifies.
June 29: Efforts to drain the cave with pumps make little progress.
June 30: The effort to locate the missing picks up pace again, as a break in the rain eases flooding.
July 1: Rescue divers advance into the main passageway and set up a staging area inside.
July 2: Two expert British cave divers locate the missing boys and their coach. They record video of the boys talking with them.
July 3: The videos are released and show the boys taking turns introducing themselves.
July 4: Seven navy Seals and a doctor join the boys with food and medicine.
July 5: The boys continue with diving lessons.
July 6: Concern increases about falling oxygen levels inside the cave. A former navy Seal helping dies from a lack of oxygen.
July 7: Officials say the boys’ diving skills are not yet where they need to be.
July 8: “D-day” has arrived. Divers take four of the boys out through tight passages and flooded caverns.
July 9: Divers take four more boys to safety.
July 10: Divers bring out the remaining four boys and their coach. – AP