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CHIANG RAI: It was supposed to be a fun excursion after playing football, but it turned into a two-week ordeal putting the life of a group of people at risk. young trapped in a cave.
When Coach Ekkapol Chantawong led twelve members of his "Wild Boar" youth football team to the entrance of the Tham Luang Cave Complex, north of Thailand on June 23, he thought that they would not be more than an hour
"We had nothing with us, no food," he recalls at a press conference Wednesday where the now-famous team was telling for the first time its painful ordeal and its miraculous escape in their own words.
Students had a tutor class to arrive later in the evening. And besides, Ekkapol thought, the team often explored the complex after practice and was familiar with its winding tunnels
The Thai rainy season was imminent – a period of monsoon rains that often flooded the cave – and there were already pools. water inside the mouth.
A sign outside the cave warned of the entrance during the monsoon. But the kids were eager to have an adventure.
"We were discussing whether we wanted to explore the cave and, if so, how should we swim," the 25-year-old coach, a much-appreciated mentor to the boys, recalled. "Everyone said yes."
The team, aged 11 to 16, left his bikes and football boots near the entrance to the cave before one of the boys waded into the lodge. ;water. The rest followed
Trapped in the dark
If the sky had not been opened, the boars would have returned in the middle of the # 39; afternoon.
The deluge forced them to penetrate deep into the cave as the floodwaters rushed through the entrance and rose regularly on the walls
This fateful decision triggered a the most remarkable rescue operations in history. Navy SEALs and international experts dive together to accomplish the diabolically difficult task of first locating the missing boys and then extracting them through miles of flooded passageways, as watched by a breathless world.
A former SEAL of the Thai Navy, Saman Kunan, He died when his air was exhausted during a refueling mission.
Trapped in black and black darkness, the boys had no idea if anyone even came to them – let alone that they had generated headlines around the world whole. 19659002] "I was really afra" I would not be able to go home, "recalls Mongkol Boonpiem, 13.
Fortunately, they had a supply of fresh water.
" We drank from the water that fell from the rocks, "told the press Pornchai Khamluang, the 16-year-old boy who waded for the first time in the water." It was clean and tasted like drinking water. "
As the hours changed to days, the boys were doing what they could to keep morale – coach Ekkapol, who spent several years in a local monastery as a Buddhist monk, He taught them to meditate to keep calm and preserve the air.
They had little notion of time, but the first time that they fell asleep , they prayed, said Ekkapol
"Miracle"
The calm fellowship saw them cross but there was t moments of terror.
Floods pushed the group deeper into the cave. At one point, they started trying to make their way, a futile illustration of their desperation in a system of caves buried under hundreds of meters of limestone.
"We used rocks to dig the wall of the cave," says 13-year-old Phanumas Saengdee. "We dug three to four meters."
Eventually, the team sits on a small, muddy ledge four kilometers from the cave. All they could do, was hope that someone would find them.
Salvation came on the ninth day in which boys seemed to be the most unlikely forms. The team heard voices but the spoken language was not Thai
Two British cave diving experts, who had spent days battling the flooded passages, had finally located the failed group [19659002] The only member of the Wild Boars who spoke English
"When he (the diver) came out of the water, I was shocked that he was British," he remembers . "It was a miracle, I was scared and I asked him 'Can I help you?'"
In video of the scene captured by one of the diver's bodycameras and airing later in the world, scruffy boys dressed in football kits stuffed with mud, we could see thanks to their rescuers.
"Many people come, many, many people," the diver reassured.
They were no longer lost or alone. The rescue mission was launched. – AFP
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