Stranded Thai boys learning to swim
Youth soccer team will probably have to dive to escape flooded cave system
Rescue workers assisted by Thai navy Seals started teaching some members of a young soccer team and their coach how to swim and dive Wednesday, nearly two weeks after they became trapped in a cave in northern Thailand.
The boys, ages 11-16, and their 25year-old coach, have been stranded deep inside the cave in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province for 12 days. They disappeared when they went exploring after a soccer game June 23 and were found by rescue divers late Monday.
But risky conditions including volatile water levels, challenging terrain and heavy rains forecast have complicated plans to safely extract them.
Some of the boys do not know how to swim and flooding in the caves means the boys would likely have to dive to be able to escape, which rescue experts say could be extremely dangerous.
Thai media reported the boys have been practicing using the equipment but have not yet tried it out in water.
The British divers who found the squad said it took three hours to reach them, as they faced fast-moving currents and had to pull themselves along cave walls.
The boys and their coach were trapped by a sudden influx of water.
Some cave rescue experts have said it would be safer to keep the team supplied with essential food and medicine where they are and wait for the water levels to recede. However, that could take months, as Thailand’s monsoon season usually lasts through October.
Still, the boys and their coach reported they were in good health in a brief video released Wednesday on the Thai navy Seals Facebook page.
The Seals, including medics, are staying with the team inside the cave and the boys are mostly in a stable condition after having received highprotein drinks.
The one-minute video shows the team together with the Seals inside the darkened cave. While the boys are visibly thin, they appear to be in good spirits as they introduce themselves one-by-one to the camera.
At one point in the video, the boys laugh in response to an apparent joke made by a member of the rescue team. Experts have said that looking after the boys’ mental health will be key to ensuring they are able to safely take part in any rescue plan.
Thai authorities said they are working to install an internet cable to the cave so that the parents of the boys can talk to their children.
“It’s like he has been given a new life,” Kian Kamluang, whose 16-yearold son Pornchai is inside the cave, told the Associated Press. She said she’ll never let her son go into a cave or near water again.
The longest time anyone has survived while trapped underground is 69 days, according to Guinness World Records. In that incident, all 33 miners made it safely back to the surface via a rescue capsule after they were trapped 2,257 ft below the surface after the collapse of a mine near Copiapo, Chile, in August 2010. The gold-copper mine collapsed after an earthquake.