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When 12 football players and their coach disappeared in the Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand on June 23, many feared that they would never come out alive from the flooded depths of geological complex. During days of research, the divers found the boys and their coach huddled in an isolated room inside the cave. They were hungry and cold, but alive.
Questions were quickly raised about the next precarious stage: how would rescuers rescue them? With the move to the flooded room – and the only way to get in and out of a precarious road – rescuers weighed their options. The urgency and difficulty of evacuating the group trapped 13 became more pressing on Friday. Officials said they had "limited time" to release them.
With the difficult situation of the football team approaching the mark of two weeks, here is what is known.
Who are the boys stranded and how did they arrive?
The 12 trapped boys are from Moo Pa Academy (the name means "wild boars"), a football team in Mae Sai District of Chiang Rai, and are between 11 and 16 years old. Many attend Mae Sai Prasitsart's school, and their clbadmates have held prayer vigils for them since they've disappeared. All were in good health when the rescuers found them on Monday, according to the authorities.
One of the boys, Adul Sam-On, was born in Myanmar, where his parents live. He had been welcomed by a church to study in Thailand. He speaks four languages - English, Burmese, Thai and Chinese – and was able to communicate with the British divers who found the group for the first time
The boys left after playing football on June 23 and did a bike until the cave. coach. When they did not return home on Saturday night, their families reported their disappearance. Family members have held a vigil outside the complex since then.
Who is the football coach?
Ekkapol Chantawong, 25, is the badistant coach of the Wild Boars football team and was hiking with the players through the cave complex when they became stranded.
. The family of Chantawong said that he spent years as a Buddhist monk. His aunt, Ambad Sriwichai, said that both of his parents were dead and that he lived with his sick grandmother.
"He's a very good boy," she said last week. "He's very helpful, he loves football."
Another aunt, Tham Chantawong, told The Associated Press that his training had probably helped the group survive.
"He could meditate until one o'clock". "It certainly helped and probably helps the boys stay calm."
Where are they in the cave complex?
Tham Luang Cave is a sprawling complex under the Doi Nang Chain No near the border. Myanmar. Bicycles, soccer shoes and other equipment belonging to boys were found at the entrance of the cave complex – at the only known pbadage inside or outside – the day after their disappearance. A sign on the outside had warned visitors not to enter "in the rainy months from July". The rainy season usually ended in November.
But the boys and their coach ventured there, and then became trapped by the rain. During the search effort, rescuers in search of the group were pumping water from the cave system, but it was not possible to drain enough to make a difference.
Because of the flood, it took 10 days to find them. The cave complex has never been fully mapped and is filled with different waterways that do not seem to be directly connected.
The room in which the boys and their trainer are taken is about three miles from the entrance and accessible only to rescue the divers because of the flood. They had to cross narrow pbadages for hours to reach the trapped group
What is the rescue plan?
After the boys and their coach were found, the officials said that they could be stuck for months. while waiting for the flood waters to retreat. But the decline in oxygen levels has endangered their health and survival and added a new emergency to the rescue. "At first, we thought we could keep the children alive for a long time, but now a lot has changed," said Arpakorn Yookongkaew, the commander of the Thai navy SEAL, to reporters on Friday. "We have a limited time."
The goal of the operation is now to provide air to their cave pocket and to send them a line of communication from the command center in a dry part called Room Three . Friday, 140 divers were posted, about a thousand of the boys
The team and the stranded coach may have to be evacuated by divers, although some members of the group can not swim and n & # 39; Have never done scuba diving. Officials still need to provide details on whether this can happen, and if so, when.
The entrepreneur Elon Musk told on Twitter that engineers from two of his companies – SpaceX and The Boring Company – were traveling on Friday, they traveled to Thailand to see where they were. they could help rescue operations.
"There are probably a lot of complexities that are hard to appreciate without being there in person," Musk writes.
What are the chances of survival of the team?
The most unfavorable cases imply that the group lacks air or is carried away by the tumultuous waters.
described strong currents, limited visibility, and dangerous conditions in the cave. With a few pbadages only two feet and a half wide, it was difficult for even the best divers to navigate the submerged parts of the cave. It takes six hours from their point of stop to reach the room where the boys are
Oxygen levels have dropped, making the situation inside the room disastrous.
The trip is not only risky for boys for rescuers too, as evidenced by the death of a retired Thai Navy SEAL, Saman Gunan, 38, who volunteered as part of the rescue efforts on Friday. He ran out of air during a dive to help deliver air tanks to the room where the boys were stranded, said Admiral Yookongkaew
His funeral will be sponsored by the Royal Family Thai.
Megan Specia, Richard C. Paddock, Mukatita Suhartono and Mike Ives contributed to the report.
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