Britons find Thai boys lost in cave complex
Twelve children and their football coach found alive after going missing in Thai cave nine days ago
Twelve Thai boys and their football coach were yesterday found alive by two British divers, after surviving for nine days cut off by flood waters inside a cave complex. The Britons, believed to be Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, from the British Cave Rescue Council, joined army rescue workers last week as they searched the Tham Luang cave network in northern Thailand. Initial reports suggested the boys were too weak to move immediately.
TWELVE Thai boys and their football coach were yesterday miraculously found alive in a cave complex by two British divers after surviving for nine days cut off by flood waters inside a cave complex.
The British team last week joined army rescue workers as they searched the pitch black of the vast Tham Luang cave network in northern Thailand.
Footage of the moment they were found shows the team, dressed in their red strip, looking remarkably calm, if a little emaciated, as they sit on a ledge.
“How many of you,” asks one of the divers. “Thirteen,” comes the answer. “Thirteen? Brilliant!” responds the diver.
The diver then tries to explain to the team that they will have to be patient before they can be rescued. “There are two of us. We had to dive,” he says. “Many people are coming.”
Initial reports suggested the boys were too weak to move immediately and would need medical attention before being extracted along perilous flooded passageways. On the video, one of the boys can be heard to say “what day?” and another says “we are hungry... shall we go outside?”
The two British rescuers – believed to be Rick Stanton and John Volanthen from the British Cave Rescue Council – were part of a team flown into Thailand early last week as hope began to run out for the missing footballers.
At the entrance, a woman, presumably a relative, clutched an ipad showing pictures of some of the boys, with relief and joy spread over own face. The news was immediately greeted by jubilant cheering from exhausted rescuers who have worked around the clock in treacherous conditions to locate and retrieve the children.
Four British rescuers in total joined Navy seals and soldiers in the desperate search. The Britons reportedly entered a chimney, abseiling more than 130ft (40m), and sending back helmetcam pictures.
One of the cavers, Rob Harper, said they were using old surveys as well as maps from recent expeditions to search the far end of the cave system, using a chamber-by-chamber check.
Vern Unsworth, a fellow caver familiar with the three-mile long Tham Luang cavern, also joined the search. Other rescue teams deployed drones, dogs, underwater cables and drilled through the cave walls in their efforts to locate the team. When word reached the families that the 12 boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their coach, 25, had been found, the Thai government live-streamed the scenes to the nation, which has been gripped by the desperate search after the group became trapped inside the six mile-long labyrinth by rising floodwaters.
Bill Whitehouse, vice chairman of the British Cave Rescue Council, said he had expected the Britons to reach the group first as they were by far the most experienced involved in the search. But he said some of the hardest work was still to come as they coordinated a dangerous rescue. “It is completely restricted with very dark tunnels and poor conditions, mud banks and areas that need excavating.
“Diving them out will not be an easy process. It is difficult enough with just one person but when you have several terrified children who are not divers. It will take a lot of planning, a lot of equipment and a lot of preparation.”
The boys were found close to a large chamber known as “Pattaya Beach” – four miles inside the cave – where rescuers had focused their efforts in recent days. The cave is one of Thailand’s longest and a major tourist attraction during the dry season. Visitors are usually only allowed up to half a mile (800m) inside as the cavern is difficult to navigate.