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MAE SAI, Thailand – The skinny boys huddled on the floor of the cave when British divers emerged from the murky water.
As her light flickered from one boy to the other, a diver shouted, "Thirteen," a diver replied.
"Brilliant," said the diver.
After ten days trapped in a flooded cave complex in northern Thailand, and after a huge search effort The 12 missing boys and their football coach were finally found in Tham Luang Cave.
In a brief video shot by another diver, posted on the Thai Navy Seal's Facebook page, the boys and their coach looked surprisingly good. Some boys sat down and some got up as they spoke with the diver.
Food was above all in their minds. "Eat, eat, eat," says one of the boys in English
The group had been at the center of a search and rescue operation since the boys and their trainer entered the complex The two British divers who were the first to reach the boys were John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, both cave rescue experts, according to Bill Whitehouse, vice president of the British Cave Rescue Council
The Next challenge will be to get the football team out of the flooded cave in its weakened state and without training as divers. The boys are between 11 and 16 years old and their coach is 25 years old.
"I would expect these children to be physically badly behaved and psychologically terrified," said Dr. Eric Lavonas, an emergency physician and trained Chiang Rai Province Governor Narongsak Osottanakorn, who oversees Falun Gong. 39, search and rescue operation, said that a medical team would treat the team members and evaluate them to determine when they could be moved.
"I badure you we found them," Narongsak told reporters. "After the doctor has evaluated their condition, they will give them treatment so that they can move in. Then we will decide how to move them."
Divers finally reached the group after enlarging a narrow and submerged pbadageway that was too small for them to pbad through everyone by carrying air tanks.
the crews had used huge pumps to reduce the water level, and divers had placed guide ropes and air tanks along the road to reach the site. boys trapped
.
The boys 'first question at the divers' arrival was to know if they could leave right away. They also wanted to know how long they had been in the cave.
The diver explained that the cave was flooded and that it would take time to evacuate them. But he badured them that other divers would soon bring food and provisions.
"A lot of people come," says a diver, who is believed to be Mr. Volanthen. "We are the first."
Because the boys and their coach went to the cave after playing football, it is unlikely that they would have had much, if any, food with them. But given the length of their survival and the state in which they were found, health experts say that it is certain that they had drinking water, either from inside the cave or with them
I said. "This brings them to a safe place." Kham Phromthep, whose 12-year-old son, Duangpetch Phromthep, was among the boys trapped in the cave, said he was ecstatic when he saw his son. in the video
"I am very happy to see his face among the other faces," he said.
Like other relatives of the missing group, Mr. Kham goes to the cave every day to follow
He was home Monday night when he heard the news and he returned to the cave by bicycle.
"I am very happy, very relieved," he said "He lost weight. And he looks tired. But still, I am very happy to see it. "
Hundreds of officials from more than 20 government agencies, as well as private companies, have been involved in the search.The rescuers have come from at least six countries, including members of the government. US Army
"This is a huge success for Thailand," said Captain Jessica Tait, spokeswoman for a US Air Force team.
The researchers had believed that the boys and their trainer would go to a large cave known as Pattaya Beach, which they thought was dry and have more air than other parts of the cave.
But the Pattaya beach was flooded too and the group walked a quarter of a mile inside the cave complex to another room, said Mr. Narongsak, the governor
The group was found about three miles from the entrance to the cave.the boys including trying to find each other s entry points into the seven-mile-long cave complex and eventually drill through the top of the mountain into the roof of the cave where the group was supposed to be.
On Monday, when the divers, facing mudflows and limited visibility, carefully dilated the small pbadage that had blocked their progress under water.
Divers approached the group last Tuesday when the water level was low. bypbad the narrow opening. But they had to make a quick retreat when the water started to climb and threatened to trap them in the cave.
Since then, heavy rains have continued to flood the cave, preventing divers from reaching the group. to pump water. For several days, the water from the underground system grew faster than it could have been extracted.
Ben Reymenants, the Belgian owner of a diving school in Phuket, helped rescue and said that he spent eight hours in the water on Monday. extend the guidelines.
"It's fantastic, it's amazing," he said. "But now the real work begins, how to get them out. This is the real challenge. Of course, they are fantastic news, but they are very weak.
Among the escape options, drilling to reach the boys is the least viable because the drilling equipment needed in the mountains would be discouraging and the process long. Despite more than a week of research, no further cave entries were found.
"My main priority is always pumping water," Narongsak said at a press conference Tuesday morning. However, the water levels proved difficult to lower
which forces the group to go out with diving equipment, and even under the best circumstances, diving into caves is difficult and dangerous
. You may have conditions that make it extremely difficult to navigate dangerous water with reduced visibility, "said Dean Wiseman, spokesperson for the National Speleological Society and cave explorer for about 30 years
. "Trying to take non-divers across a cave is one of the most dangerous situations possible, even though dives are relatively easy," said Anmar Mirza, one of the leaders. But the challenges can be overcome.
"Even though they can not swim, a lifeguard must be able to guide them," Dr. Lavonas said. "The diver will have lights, obviously they're young boys and they're terrified, it's not going to be an easy rescue, but it should be OK."
He said every rescue diver would take a child and use almost certainly a harness to keep the child, including the regulator, a respirator,
A serious concern is the possibility that boys might be at risk for decompression sickness, or elbows, if the air that they breathed into the cavern was under
In this case, the best solution, according to Dr. Lavonas, would be "to bring a portable hyperbaric chamber to the mountainside by helicopter, or to place the children under oxygen and move them quickly towards a
In the last 10 days, the rescue operation has gathered Thais in the hope that the boys and their trainer would be found alive.
The king sent three kitchen trucks and staff members to help feed research teams. He also donated 2,000 raincoats to protect them from heavy rains.
It was around 10:30 pm On Monday, when the Tham Luang-Khun Nam Nang Non-Forester Park Command Center was informed that the boys and their trainer had been found.
Family members were waiting in a room in the park headquarters. When the news was announced, they got up, applauded and howled with joy.
In the video of their discovery, boys are alert when they talk to divers.
"Tell him we're hungry," a boy says in Thai. "I have not eaten anything."
They discuss the day, and the diver tells them it's Monday.
"You've been here for 10 days," he says. "You are very strong."
Later, one of the group members said that he is very happy to see the divers arriving. "
" We are happy too, "said the diver a lot," says a boy, "Thank you very much."
Follow Richard C. Paddock on Twitter: @RCPaddock
Muktita Suhartono reported Mae Sai, and Richard C. Paddock of Bangkok Denise Grady and Satoshi Sugiyama contributed to reports from New York and Stephen Castle, London.
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