Thai boys soccer team found alive in flooded cave
MAE SAI, THAILAND— The scrawny boys were huddled on the floor of the cave when the British diver emerged from the murky water.
As his light flickered from one boy to another, the diver called out, “How many of you?” “Thirteen,” one of them answered. “Brilliant,” the unidentified diver said. After 10 days trapped in a flooded cave complex in northern Thailand, and after an enormous search effort that had transfixed the country and the soccer world, the missing 12 boys and their soccer coach had finally been found.
In a brief video posted on the Thai Navy Seal Facebook page, the boys and their coach seemed in surprisingly good condition. Some of the boys sat and some stood as they spoke with the diver. The boys were still in their soccer uni- forms, in a dry area inside the cave above the water as a spotlight, apparently from a rescuer, illuminated their faces.
The group had been the focus of a search-and-rescue operation since they went missing in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex on June 23 and were caught inside by rising floodwaters.
Chiang Rai provincial Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn said the 13 were in the process of being rescued, but he cautioned that they were not out of danger yet.
“We found them safe. But the operation isn’t over,” he said in comments broadcast nationwide.
The process of extricating them is complicated.
The group must be taken out of the flooded cave in their weakened condition and without training as scuba divers. The boys range in age from 11 to 16, and their coach is 25.
Narongsak, who is overseeing the search-and-rescue operation, said Tuesday morning that a field assessment in which red is critical condition, yellow is serious condition and green is stable condition, was used.
He said: “We found that most of the boys are in green condition. Maybe some of the boys have injuries or light injuries and would be categorized as yellow condition. But no one is in red condition.”
Divers were finally able to reach the group after enlarging a narrow, submerged passageway that had been too small for them to get through while wearing their air tanks. The British divers who were first to reach the boys were John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, both experts in cave rescues, according to Bill Whitehouse, vicechair of the British Cave Rescue Council.
Earlier, crews had used huge pumps to reduce the water level, and divers had placed guide ropes and air tanks along the route to reach the site of the trapped boys.
Family members of the missing hugged each other as they cheered the news. Aisha Wiboonrungrueng, the mother of one of the boys,11-year-old Chanin Wiboonrungrueng, smiled and hugged her family. She said she would cook her son a Thai fried omelette, his favourite food, when he returns home.
Rescue divers had spent much of Monday making preparations for a final push to locate the lost team.
Narongsak said the divers located the missing 300 to 400 metres past a section of the cave that was on higher ground and was thought to be where the team members and their coach may have taken shelter.
“When the medics have evaluated the kids to see if their health is in good condition, we will care for them until they have enough strength to move by themselves, and then we will evaluate the situation on bringing them out again later,” Narongsak said.
In the five-minute navy video, the boys are quiet as they sit on their haunches, legs bent in front of them. They are clad in the uniforms they apparently were wearing on the morning they disappeared in the cave.
The boys’ first question when the divers arrived was whether they could leave right away. They also wanted to know how long they had been in the cave.
The rescue team explained that the cave was flooded, and that it would take some time to get them out. But he assured them that other divers would soon be bringing food and supplies.
“Many people are coming,” one diver, believed to be Volanthen, said. “We are the first.”
Because the boys and their coach went to the cave after soccer practice, it is unlikely they would have had much, if any, food with them. But given how long they survived and the condition in which they were found, health experts say it is certain they had drinkable water, whether from within the cave or brought with them.
“Food is not the priority,” Lavonas said. “It’s getting them to a safe place. The human body is pretty good at dealing with short-term starvation.”
One of the boys, noticing the camera and hearing words they don’t immediately understand, says in Thai, “Oh, they want to take a picture; tell him we’re hungry. I haven’t had anything to eat.”
Then the boy breaks into simple English, saying, “Eat, eat, eat,” to which another voice responds in Thai that he already told that to the rescuer. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha thanked the international experts and rescuers who helped locate the missing for their “tremendous efforts.”
“The Royal Thai Government and the Thai people are grateful for this support and co-operation, and we all wish the team a safe and speedy recovery,” Prayuth’s office said in a statement.
Thai navy SEAL divers and rescue workers from other countries had made initial progress through a narrow passageway early Monday after passing through a key chamber on Sunday whose high, murky waters had previously blocked their progress. Narongsak had said earlier that the passageway goes upward in some places and downward in others and is extremely narrow, making it difficult for divers and their gear to fit through.
Divers have been stymied repeatedly by rising water that forced them to withdraw for safety reasons. When water levels fell Sunday, the divers went forward with a more methodical approach, deploying a rope line and extra oxygen supplies along the way.
The SEALs’ Facebook page said that since Sunday night, the divers had reached a bend where the kilometre-long passage splits in two directions. The divers were aiming for a sandy chamber on higher ground in the cave.
In addition to the divers, teams have been working to pump out water as well as divert groundwater. Other efforts have focused on finding shafts on the mountainside that might serve as a back door to the blocked-off areas.
Experts in cave rescues from around the world had gathered at the site. An official Australian group has followed a U.S. military team, British cave experts, Chinese life-saving responders and several other volunteer groups from various countries.
“These are challenging conditions and there’s a lot of consideration for safety as well as, the environment outside is contributing to the environment inside,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Jessica Tait, part of a 30-member U.S. military team assisting in the search operation, referring to the rain that has been flooding the cave. “So I’d say, yeah, it’s an accurate statement that it’s challenging.”