Mission window opens as Thai cave rescuers battle water, time

CHIANG RAI, Thailand (Reuters) – A rescue mission for a young Thai soccer team and their coach trapped in a flooded cave can expect its best luck and success.

But rescuers were also waging a "war with water and time" before expected heavy rains.

Narongsak Osottanakorn's cautious message of hope to a day after the death of a Thai rescue diver, a grim turn in what began two weeks ago as a celebration of one of the boys' birthdays at the Tham Luang cave complex in the northern province of Chiang Rai.

For the first time since they were found, the boys talked about – many camps with the cave's entrance – with both homesickness and humor.

At the sprawling cave mouth, lines of frogmen and soldiers with torches could be seen emerging from the darkness, as generators chugged and pumped water out of blue nylon pipes.

Dozens of Royal Thai Army soldiers rested on the rocks outside the cave, with two of them saying they would have been able to start Sunday or the day after.

Authorities tightened a security cordon, draping plastic sheets around the approach to the cellar, further giving the sense that a rescue might be imminent.

We could not be independently corroborated by Reuters, but Narongsak, a provincial governor, told reporters earlier on Saturday that "the best and most convenient time for the rescue operation."

" The current situation, with the air and water levels and the boys' health, is the best yet, "he added.

"We're still at war with water and time. The discovery … was just a small victory. "

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday that he had heard" some good feedback from cave experts in Thailand "and that an" escape pod "and inflatable tube he was developing might be used to help get the boys out.

He gave no details.

Several monks in orange dresses sat at a small shrine with two golden deer statues near the cave mouth, chanting, a middle-aged woman knelt and prayed before them.

An badistant told Reuters the ceremony was to "open up" the cave mouth to allow for an easy and safe return for the boys.

"DOUBLE POSITIVE"

Ivan Katadzic, a Danish diving instructor who has been ferrying oxygen tanks into the cave, said after a dive on Friday he was "double positive" about the mission because of the water level had dropped considerably.

Katadzic, the most dangerous part of the dive, during which they have to take their oxygen tanks front of them to squeeze through submerged holes.

Alternative rescue plans include stocking the cave with supplies and an oxygen line to keep the boys alive for months until Thailand's monsoon season ends, or drilling a shaft down from the forest above.

Narongsak said the drills would be 600 meters (1,970 feet) of fragile rock limestone to reach the boys and rescuers were discussing drilling angles.

Besides looking for possible holes from above, the team on the hill is trying to block holes and streams that channel water into the cave before the weather turns.

"Everything is a race against time," said Kamolchai Kotcha, an official of the forest park where the cave complex is located. His team would camp out on the hill to try and finish his work before the rain cam, he said.

Australia, Great Britain, China, Japan, United States and the United States.

"It's only natural for us," Meir Schlomo, Israel's ambbadador to Thailand, told Reuters at the scene.