‘Mission impossible’ to get soccer boys out of cave
chiang rai — In an exercise billed as ‘mission impossible’, rescuers battled intensifying rain to furiously pump water from a cave in Thailand on Tuesday, as officials thrashed out plans to extract a young soccer team located by divers after being trapped and incommunicado for 10 days.
Seven members of a Thai navy SEALS unit, including a medic and a counsellor, were staying with the group after its dramatic discovery on an elevated rock late on Monday by divers who had struggled for hours through narrow passages and murky waters.
News of the survival of the ‘Wild Boar’ team sparked jubilation in a nation gripped by the harrowing drama, with news websites, social media and the prime minister celebrating the event and hailing the rescuers as heroes.
Rear Admiral Apakorn Yuukongkaew, commander of the SEALS unit, said rain was still a challenge but the boys would be taken out safely after sufficient water could be pumped out of the cave.
“But if that doesn’t work, with the seasonal rain, we’ll do it another way,” he said.
“We have Plan ‘A’ and Plan ‘B’, and ultimately, everyone will return to their parents’ embrace.”
Experts say they could remain inside for weeks — or even up to four months
— as rescuers work out the safest option for their extraction. —