Rescue operation in Thailand: an odyssey against the clock where every detail counts

CHIANG RAI (From a special envoy) .- Thirteen foreign divers and five international and one group labeled "all the stars" "by the authorities of Khun Nam Nang No cave, to


Thailand
the most publicized operation since
the rescue of the Chilean miners

Each child is extracted from the cave by a pair of divers, who hold the special respiratory mask that covers his face completely in the still complicated sections. They also wear diving suits, helmets and boots. They use as a guide a rope of eight millimeters in thickness that extends along the trajectory.

four kilometers separate the mouth of the mound cave where they are already laid, but other galleries are still flooded. If they are wide enough, the divers embrace the children by the belly. In others, where it is difficult for a human body to adapt, the first must go forward alone.

The odyssey includes sections flooded with mud and blind, so demanding that a few days ago they claimed the life of a diver who was part of the Thai Navy. He returned after depositing oxygen reserves along the route when he exhausted the compressed air from his tank. His death highlighted the challenge of removing children who can not swim and have been given crash courses in recent days.

The operation began at 10 am local time after checking that the conditions were the least dangerous and that the future would not be better. The authorities had measured for days issues such as the strengths and morale of the children, the breathing air diminishing from the cavity where they remained and the alleged defeat that would suffer from hundreds of exhaust pumps. Water facing the impending monsoon. An Australian doctor and diver had given the green light a few hours earlier, after a trapped check. "Their minds and bodies are prepared and they know how the operation will develop, they are ready to go," Narongsak said.

The Hundreds of Pump Pumps Extraction had managed to lower the level of water in 70 centimeters after days of feverish activity.A watershed on Saturday night however threatened to complicate the picture.Invite to take what was left of the window at the risk that the access to the cave is sealed and that the children remain locked until October.

The players and their trainer entered the cave of Tham Luang there two weeks ago, neglecting the signs of prohibition to perform a rite of initiation. They caused a sudden flood that frustrated their exit. On the ninth day, while the country was already digesting their loss, they were found by two British divers. The complexity of its extraction kept the provincial capital in suspense, which exploded yesterday with joy every time they heard the buzzing propellers of a helicopter leaving the cave.