Thai boat tragedy toll hits 38

Death of ex-SEAL cave diver touches Thais

PHUKET, Thailand, July 7, (Agencies): Divers who entered the wreck of a tour boat that sank in a storm off the southern Thai resort island of Phuket described heartbreaking scenes of bodies of children found in the arms of their mothers, as the search continued Saturday for 18 mostly Chinese tourists missing in a disaster that has left dozens dead.

The death toll from Thursday’s tragedy climbed to 38, in Thailand’s biggest tourist-related disaster in years. It was not clear how many of the dead and missing were Chinese. The previous announced death toll was 33, with authorities saying all of those victims were Chinese.

“It’s very difficult to see ... it’s traumatic, it’s tragic but the best thing to do, our job as divers, is to bring back the bodies to their families,” diver Philip Entremont told reporters before resuming the search Saturday.

The boat, with 105 people, including 93 tourists, capsized and sank after it was hit by 5-meter (16-foot) waves.

The death toll jumped Friday after the navy sent divers to the wreck. In images shortly after the sinking, rescued people sat in large rubber life rafts surrounded by churning seas.

Phuket Gov Norraphat Plodthong announced at a news conference on Saturday afternoon that the death toll had climbed further, to 38, with 18 missing.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the leader of Thailand’s military government, expressed his “sympathies and deepest condolences” to the families of the dead. The government will “exert all efforts to find those still missing and provide support to all survivors of this tragic event,” he said in a statement.

Reports in Thai media said police charged the owner and captain of the stricken ship with carelessness causing death and injury.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for all-out search and rescue efforts, telling the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Chinese diplomats in Thailand to take greater measures, and also urging Thai authorities to spare no efforts.

Chinese Ambassador Lyu Jian had an “emergency conversation” by phone with Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, the Chinese Embassy said in a statement. It quoted the envoy calling on Thailand to quickly mobilize an intensive search for the missing and “to tend and make appropriate arrangements for the rescued Chinese tourists, treat and cure the injured and receive family members of the Chinese tourists involved.”

Lyu said it hoped the cause of the capsizing would be quickly ascertained and asked Somkid to have the relevant Thai agencies closely cooperate with China on the matter.

Fatal accidents among foreign tourists at Thai beaches are not unusual, but normally involve drownings in unsafe swimming areas or accidents involving smaller boats.

Conditions are “perfect” to evacuate a young football team from a flooded Thai cave in the coming days before fresh rains and a possible rise in carbon dioxide further imperil the group, the rescue mission chief said Saturday.

The plight of 12 Thai boys and their coach from the “Wild Boar” football team has transfixed Thailand since they became trapped in a cramped chamber of the Tham Luang cave complex on June 23.

Rescuers have conceded that evacuating the boys is a race against time with monsoon rains expected to undo days of round-the-clock drainage of the deluged cave.

More than 100 exploratory holes have been bored — some shallow, but the longest 400 metres deep — into the mountainside in an attempt to open a second evacuation route and avoid forcing the boys into a dangerous dive through submerged tunnels.

“Now and in the next three or four days, the conditions are perfect (for evacuation) in terms of the water, the weather and the boys’ health,”

the chief of the rescue operation told reporters.

“We have to make a clear decision on what we can do.”

Rescuers have fed a kilometres-long air pipe into the cave to restore oxygen levels in the chamber where the team are sheltering, accompanied by medics and expert divers.

Meanwhile, the death of a former member of the Thai navy’s elite SEAL during an underwater swim in the partly flooded cave where a dozen boys and their soccer coach are trapped struck a particularly deep chord with Thais, because he was a volunteer on a humanitarian mission that has riveted the nation for two weeks.

And as is the case with elite military units all over the world, Thailand’s SEALs were quick to pay their own heartfelt tribute to their fallen friend, former Petty Officer 1st Class Saman

“See you in Chiang Rai,” was the can-do salutation in a memorial message from other retired SEALs that was forwarded to their buddies in active service at the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in northern Thailand on Friday.

“The determination and dedication of Saman will always be in all of our frogmen hearts. Today Saman rests. We will complete this mission, just as Saman intended,” they vowed, signing off with a battle cheer adopted from the US Navy: “Hooyah Hooyah Hooyah.”

The statement said that Saman was a member of their 30th class who resigned to work as a security officer at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport since 2006.

“He is a SEAL member who had knowledge, skill, was an athletic triathlon, and enjoyed adventure sports,” it said. “Even when he left the department, he still loved and bonded with his SEAL team brothers, no matter what activity the SEAL team held, Saman would always participate in activities, right until his last minute.”

“Saman left us while working with his SEAL team brothers at a time where all frogmen put their arms around each other and move forward to complete the mission that is set.” SEAL commander Rear Adm

separately explained the ethic driving their mission and why Saman’s death would not deter them from their course.