TRAPPED TEAM FACING VERY DANGEROUS DIVE
Swimming out of cave not seen as easy feat
The trapped Thai youth soccer team and its coach may have to make a desperate scuba swim to safety through dark and narrow flooded cave passages as rescuers fear the return of torrential monsoon rains this weekend.
Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda said Royal Thai Navy divers are planning a possible mission to help the boys swim out using diving gear.
“Diving is not easy. For people who have never done it, it will be difficult, unlike diving in a swimming pool, because the cave’s features have small channels,” Paojinda said. “If something happens midway, it could be life-threatening.”
The move is seen as highly risky. Cave rescue experts said it could be safer to simply supply them where they are for now rather than trying to have the boys dive out. However, that could take months given that Thailand’s rainy season typically lasts through October.
Gary Mitchell of the British Cave Rescue Council, said helping the boys dive out could take time, particularly since they are assumed to have no diving experience and because they will be physically weak from the entrapment.
“They may start to dive them out in small batches ... into other chambers, other pockets of air, and do that over a staggered period of time,” Mitchell said. “Obviously, the biggest risk really is current rainfall. If it keeps raining or starts to rain and water levels rise then there’s a bit more immediacy required.”
The 12 boys and their 25-yearold coach, who disappeared when flooding trapped them in the cave they were exploring on June 23 after a soccer game, were found by rescue divers late Monday. The effort drew international help and has riveted Thailand and the world.
The boys, aged 11 to 16, and their coach were described as healthy and being looked after by seven members of the Royal Thai Navy SEALs, including medics, who were staying with them inside the cave. They were mostly in stable condition and have received high-protein drinks.
After a break in the weather in recent days, the Thai Meteorological Department forecast for Chiang Rai calls for light rain through Friday followed by heavy rain starting Saturday and continuing through July 10.
SEAL commander Rear Adm. Arpakorn Yookongkaew said they’re safe for now.
“We have given the boys food, starting from easily digested and high-powered food with enough minerals,” Arpakorn said at a news conference.
If the trapped boys and their coach are to swim for it, “We have to be certain that it will work and have to have a drill to make sure that it’s 100 percent safe,” Arpakorn said.
Thai rescuers also have been searching for a rock fissure that might lead deep enough into the cave system to provide an alternate escape route, without having to swim. So far, they have not found one that goes far enough.
Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai province stretches under a mountainside for up to 6 miles, much of it a string of narrow passageways that lead to wide chambers and then back to narrow passageways.