Elon Musk calls caver ‘pedo’

BANGKOK: A British caver who helped rescue 12 boys from a Thai cave said yesterday he may take legal action against Elon Musk after the entrepreneur called him a “pedo”.

Tesla CEO Musk launched the extraordinary tirade against Vernon Unsworth without providing any justification or explanation, after the cave expert slammed his offer of a miniature submarine to extract the footballers from the Tham Luang cave as a “PR stunt”.

Unsworth, who provided mapping knowledge of the cave to rescuers, said Musk’s prototype would have had “absolutely no chance of working”.

Musk responded on Sunday in a bizarre series of tweets referring to Unsworth without using his name as “pedo guy”. “Pedo” is short for paedophile. He then doubled down on the claim, tweeting from his official account to more than 22 million followers: “Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.”

Musk later deleted the tweets and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Unsworth said yesterday he had not reviewed the tweets in full and had only heard about them.

Asked if he would take legal action against Musk, Unsworth said: “If it’s what I think it is, yes.”

The caver said he would make a decision when he flies back to the UK this week, but said the episode with Musk “ain’t finished”.

Meanwhile, broadcaster ABC reported yesterday two Australian divers who helped extract the young football team obtained diplomatic immunity before the rescue in case it failed.

Anaesthetist Richard Harris and diving partner Craig Challen, both cave diving specialists, played key roles in the rescue.

Their participation came after negotiations between Australian and Thai authorities accorded them diplomatic immunity to protect them from possible prosecution if anything went awry during the treacherous mission, ABC said. – AFP