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Old 04-07-2018, 06:44 PM   #1
globalcookie
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Default Rescuing 13 Trapped In Cave, Thailand

Thai cave rescue: boys 'learning to dive' as authorities race against time to free them
The Guardian Michael Safi in Mae Sai

The 12 boys trapped in a cave in northern Thailand are being trained in how to breathe through scuba masks as they prepare for a possible attempt at leaving the cave.

Thai authorities are racing to drain water from a northern Thailand cave where the boys and their football coach are stranded before storms arrive, after which an extraction will become “almost impossible” for months, according to a coordinator of the international rescue effort.

Teaching the boys, none of whom know how to swim, to use breathing apparatus so they can be escorted out of the cave system by rescue divers, is thought to be the most realistic option that would allow boys to be rescued from the caves before monsoon rains hit later in the week.

While they are currently learning to use the gear, none have made any attempt to get through the water hemming them in. Even if authorities manage to drain enough water to allow the boys to crawl most of the way out of the cave, they would still need to pass through short underwater passages.

Ruengrit Changkwanyuen, a coordinator of the Thai contingent of the international cave diving team that located the boys on Monday night, said the group was on high ground and safe from flash flooding.

“But rescuers have to work quickly because by Friday a storm is coming, and if the rain starts again the cave is going to be fully flooded,” Changkwanyuen said. “If that happens it will be almost impossible to send supplies or keep in touch with them.”

New footage emerged of the children on Wednesday morning showing them being treated by a Thai navy doctor who spent the night around four kilometres inside the cave complex where the boys have been trapped for the past 11 days.

A nurse and up to four soldiers are also with the group in a raised cavern near an area known as Pattaya Beach and were monitoring their health and trying to keep their spirits high. “We are taking care of them as our own kids,” said Narongsak Osatanakorn, the governor of Chiang Rai province.

Authorities said they appeared mentally and physically healthy after receiving food and water supplies, but were yet to speak to their parents. An attempt to send a mobile phone into the cavern was botched when a waterproof seal around the device was broken. They are preparing to send another.

“Once the phone gets to them, we want the families to talk with them and a lot of pressure will be relieved,” an army spokesman said on Tuesday.

Thai officials said on Tuesday that no extraction was imminent. “Today we won’t be able to,” Osatanakorn said at a morning briefing.

“We have to be 100% sure all kids will come out at the same time. Some might be ready before others. If they’re not ready, or it’s risky, we will not take them out.”

Authorities were sticking to their main plan of trying to drain enough water from the cave to allow the boys to be pulled out, he said, efforts that have been aided by an unseasonably dry day in Mae Sei.

“The most important thing is to lower water levels,” Osatanakorn said. “Water has decreased a lot but when it’s raining we can’t fight it. If it doesn’t rain we can have good results. Time is limited in getting the kids out.”

He said more water was currently being pumped out of the site than was seeping in and divers were working to seal holes in the rocks around the boys. But he declined to set a time frame for their evacuation. “It all depends,” he said.

As well as finding ways to extract the boys in the coming days, Thai navy seals are also planning for a scenario in which the rescue cannot take place, preparing to send food and medical supplies that could last the next four months until the monsoon subsides.

Thai soldiers conducted their first evacuation drill on Tuesday afternoon, locking arms to form a column from the mouth of the cave towards a field where 13 ambulances are waiting to ferry the group to hospital.

Mental health workers said one of them would be assigned to accompany each child in the ambulance along with one of the boy’s parents. The group have been inside the cave since 23 June, when they wandered inside after a football training session and are though to have become trapped by rising water levels.

Additional reporting by Jacob Goldberg
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Old 04-07-2018, 06:59 PM   #2
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MAE SAI, Thailand (AP) — Their skinny faces illuminated by a flashlight, the Thai soccer teammates stranded more than a week in a partly flooded cave said they were healthy on a video released Wednesday, as heavy rains forecast for later this week could complicate plans to safely extract them.

The 12 boys and their coach are seen sitting with Thai navy SEALs in the dark cave. The boys, many wrapped in foil warming blankets, take turns introducing themselves, folding their hands together in a traditional greeting and saying their names and that they are healthy.

The video lasting about a minute was recorded sometime Tuesday and was posted on the navy SEAL Facebook page Wednesday morning. The navy later released two more videos of the boys.

The boys, aged 11-16, and their 25-year-old coach disappeared after they went exploring in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in northern Chiang Rai province after a soccer game June 23. The teammates, who were trapped inside when heavy rains flooded the cave, were found by rescue divers late Monday night during a desperate search that drew assistance from experts around the globe.

Authorities said the boys, who had also been shown Tuesday in a video shot by the British diver who discovered them, were being looked after by seven members of the 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.

In all of the videos the boys have appeared in good spirits. In the most recent videos a navy SEAL is shown treating minor cuts on the feet and legs of the boys with antibiotic ointment. Several of the boys are seen smiling as they interact with the navy SEAL, who cracks jokes.

Seeing the boys has boosted the mood of relatives, and officials are working to install an internet cable to the cave so that parents can talk to their children.

Kian Kamluang, whose 16-year-old son Pornchai is inside, said she had thought it was a 50 percent chance that her son would be found.

"It's like he has been given a new life," she said, adding that she'll never let her son go into a cave or near water again.

SEAL commander Rear Adm. Arpakorn Yookongkaew said Tuesday that there was no rush to bring the group out of the cave, since they're safe where they are. The current flooding situation means the boys would have to dive, which rescue experts have said could be extremely dangerous.

While efforts to pump out floodwaters are continuing, some Thai officials have indicated that heavy rains forecast for this weekend could force them to decide the boys should swim and dive out using the same complicated route of narrow passageways through which their rescuers entered.

Chiang Rai provincial Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn said Wednesday that the boys have been practicing wearing diving masks and breathing, but he doesn't believe they have attempted any practice dives.

He said it is unknown when an extraction could be attempted, but it is unlikely to be Wednesday.

"If it's risky or not safe, we will not proceed yet," Narongsak said. "It has to be 100 percent safe."

Authorities said they were still exploring other options, such as scouring the mountainside for other ways into the cave and finding faster ways to pump water from the cave.

Cave rescue experts have said it could be safest to simply supply the boys where they are for now, and wait for the water to go down. That could take months, however, given that Thailand's rainy season typically lasts through October.

The British Cave Rescue Council, which has members taking part in the operation , said in a statement that "although water levels have dropped, the diving conditions remain difficult and any attempt to dive the boys and their coach out will not be taken lightly because there are significant technical challenges and risks to consider."

Gary Mitchell, the group's assistant vice chairman, said getting out of the cave requires about a kilometer (half a mile) of diving total, though not all in one stretch, and takes about three hours.

"There's air pockets along the way," he said. "It's confined spaces. It's almost zero visibility. There's currents to battle against in places as well. So it's a really quite a strenuous environment to be in," he said.
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Old 06-07-2018, 03:15 PM   #3
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They trek a few km into the cave?
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Old 06-07-2018, 03:21 PM   #4
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Default Diver dies after delivering oxygen tanks to cave complex

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...ks-to-10504264

Very sad. RIP
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Old 06-07-2018, 03:30 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lenghan View Post
Yes... The best thing is the social media keep harping that he's Seal... when actually he's Ex-Seal.

And I'm guessing he was already tired when he volunteered to bring in the tanks, and overestimated his own energy.

In First Aid we always learn - You have to save yourself before you can save others. No point all die together.
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Old 06-07-2018, 03:53 PM   #6
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He was ex-SEAL because he died. He was SEAL when alive and therefore doing the trips of handling the oxygen tanks.

I am surprised he did not have a buddy with him as the visibility is practically zero in the cave. Furthermore SEAL is well trained in diving but definitely not in cave diving, which is a totally different scenario.

It reminds me of the show Sanctum. Scary.

May he RIP.
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Old 06-07-2018, 03:58 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ymmij View Post
He was ex-SEAL because he died. He was SEAL when alive and therefore doing the trips of handling the oxygen tanks.

I am surprised he did not have a buddy with him as the visibility is practically zero in the cave. Furthermore SEAL is well trained in diving but definitely not in cave diving, which is a totally different scenario.

It reminds me of the show Sanctum. Scary.

May he RIP.
Retired leh.

The diver, identified as a retired Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Saman Kunam, died on his way out of the Tham Luang cave complex after going in to supply one of the chambers with oxygen tanks at around 2am on Friday morning.

"It was sad news, a former SEAL who volunteered to help died last night about 2am," the deputy governor told reporters. "His job was to deliver oxygen (in the cave). He did not have enough on his way back."


Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...ks-to-10504264
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Old 06-07-2018, 04:02 PM   #8
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My bad... I did not read that.

Sadly a life is lost to save lives. Hopefully he is the first and last man to die in this rescue operation.
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Old 06-07-2018, 04:28 PM   #9
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Makes me wonder why on earth did they coach bring the boys in?

Can someone interview him? i mean he did a great job teaching the boys mediation to conserve energy and preserve sanity, but why go 3 km into a cave complex?
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Old 06-07-2018, 04:40 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ray2828 View Post
Makes me wonder why on earth did they coach bring the boys in?

Can someone interview him? i mean he did a great job teaching the boys mediation to conserve energy and preserve sanity, but why go 3 km into a cave complex?
Where did u read he taught them meditation?
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