On the one hand the billionaire owner of a space exploration company that, last year, sent a rocket into space with a Tesla car at the # 39; inside. On the other hand, an English diver who had a significant interest in rescuing boys trapped in a cave in Thailand.
Photo: Joe Skipper / Reuters / BBC News Brazil
In recent days, what began as a punctual criticism has generated controversy that could end up in court. It all started when Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, had the idea to save the 12 teenagers and their football coach using a mini-submarine.
The idea has not been put into practice. The young men and the coach were rescued more than 15 days after entering a cave in Chiang Rai in an operation that consisted of diving into the dark and narrow hallways of the cave.
The young people were transported by an international team of divers. All is well, under observation at the hospital, and should be released Thursday.
After the rescue, diver Vernon Unsworth clbadified "Musk's idea of using a submarine as an" advertising maneuver. "The British played a key role in the operation Rescue while making a mapping of the cave.
He went there when the boys were still missing and pbaded on information about the structure and the flooding points .This would have also helped to select a rescue group among the best diving experts in the world
In a press interview, Unsworth said that the submarine proposed by the billionaire "would have absolutely no chance to work" in the Entangled Tham Luang Musk has even sent the prototype to Thailand, but the authorities involved in the rescue have rejected the idea
Billionaire reacts aggressively
Musk's reaction to the statement of ### 39; Unsworth fled from expectations In a Twitter message, he spoke of the diver as a "pedal guy," a diminutive in English for a "pedophile" man.
"We are going to make (a video showing) the minisubmarine entering cave 5." Sorry pedophile, you asked, "said the businessman in his Twitter account.
When he began to question the social network about referring to the diver as" fart ", the billionaire still questioned Unsworth's relevance to the rescue.
"I've never seen this British expatriate living in Thailand when we were in the cave," he said. Shortly after , the businessman has erased all the tweets that were referring to the diver.
Unsworth told Channel 7 in Australia that he had not read all the Musk tweets, only when heard from them.when he was asked if he would take legal action against the businessman, he replied, "Yes, this is not the case. is not finished. "" I think that he has treated me as a pedophile, he shows what kind of person he is. "
The Briton, who spends a few months in Thailand every year, He volunteered to participate in the research of boys aged 11 to 17 and their 25-year-old football coach. Efforts ended on July 10 with a successful operation.
The submarine arrived late
Musk had proposed to use a "Microsubmarine, infant size", with the technology developed by his exploration company space, SpaceX.
The billionaire even traveled to Thailand with the prototype. But rescue officials refused the offer. Before Unsworth, the chief of the rescue operation, Narongsak Osotthanakorn, had previously been targeted by Musk's dissatisfaction with the rejection of the minisubmarine.
The businessman also queried via Twitter whether Osotthanakorn was really ahead of the efforts to save the boys by saying that the Thais was called "wrongly as the head of the operation of rescue".
At the time, Musk shared an e-mail exchange with British specialist Richard Stanton, who was part of the rescue team and who, according to Musk, would actually lead the operations.
Negative Impacts
Musk's tweets criticizing the British diver elicited reactions from those who participated in the rescue operation in the cave. Claus Rasmussen, a Danish diving instructor, described the attacks as "inappropriate" and praised Unsworth's rescue work.
"It was one of the main vectors for doing everything and clarifying for us what was happening," he told AFP.
Philanthropic Actions
The founder of Tesla is famous for having invested in humanitarian action with good potential to attract the public's attention.
Last year, he received the gratitude of the governor of Puerto Rico for setting up a system of
Elon Musk is known to have made headlines, but he's not the only one to be able to provide electricity to a children's hospital after the pbadage of a hurricane. To be honest, he was only involved in this case after receiving a wave of messages from his fans on Twitter, "said Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC technical reporter.
"The fact is that the know-how Musk companies that explore the space and the tunnels proved to be irrelevant this time, which reminds us that the superhero of the technology is not always up to what fans think, "he says. News Brazil "/> BBC News Brazil – All rights reserved Reproduction is prohibited without the written permission of BBC News Brazil