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Rescue operations peak in the Tham Luang cave complex in northern Thailand, where divers pull the Wild Boars football team trapped in a safe place. The 12 young members of the team and their coach, from Chiang Rai province, were trapped in the flooded underground complex since 23 June.
[ Read live relief efforts here. ]
Passages, near zero visibility and the constant threat of a monsoon made the rescue operation incredibly difficult. Saman Gunan, 38, former member of the Thai Navy SEALs, died after fainting as he was placing spare air tanks along the road to the cave where the boys are trapped .
How to guide a dozen children? passages, including long submarine channels, largely in the dark, when many of them do not know how to swim? John Ismay, a New York Times reporter who served as a diving officer in the United States Navy from 2003 to 2010 and was qualified in scuba diving and rescue operations, explains how a rescue mission could to be withdrawn.
Is this rescue difficult?
Very hard. Each part of this operation presents its own difficulties. Rescuers swim through the underwater passages, then ascend to the next flooded surface and dive again. They have to repeat this process, and do it with the kids – many of whom could not swim. Everything here will be a compromise between traditional security considerations and operational necessity. The unique conditions to this problem will dictate all decisions made on the site.
How is cave diving different from diving in an ocean or lake?
In a cave, you do not have free access to the surface, which means that if you have an emergency under water, you can not just throw away your equipment and bolt to the surface for get some air. You must first cross the cave. Your equipment could be snagged or stuck when you are in a narrow passage, and you may be unable to solve this problem yourself. The more materials you bring, the more opportunities you have to hang on a rocky outcrop. I imagine that these divers are stripping their gear for the most part, exactly for this reason.
Cave divers often carry their tanks of compressed air on the side of their bodies rather than on their backs. It is easier to reach something under your armpit than to look for something behind you
Will divers be able to see underwater when they come out?
I would not count on it. Any dirt in the cave will make the water cloudy, especially since the divers are crossing it. It does not take much agitation to stir this dirt to the point where you will not be able to see your hand in front of your face, even with a flashlight. Professional divers will be accustomed to conditions of low visibility and low light like that of water. The kids probably will not be.
Thai and foreign divers rigged a static rope line through the underwater parts to guide their way. Adults and children could pull themselves along such a line, which makes navigation easier and reduces the chances of getting lost under water. Much of the trip would be felt, firing gradually.
Do American military divers train in caves like this?
I have never heard of a military unit. The risks are enormous and the benefits probably do not justify it. What is most apparent to the Navy's dive manual is what is known as "confined space" diving, which includes diving into wrecks or inside ballast pits. -marins.
For security reasons, operations. Instead, divers need to enter closed spaces to use one of two methods, which involve a compressor pumping air through an umbilical cord to a diver wearing an integral mask or a helmet that protects the whole head. Divers generally carry a cylinder of compressed air on their back as a source of emergency air in case of umbilical line failure.
It might be possible to connect a sufficient umbilical line to travel the entire distance between the entrance of the cave and the children. but, by pushing air through miles of hoses, it would take powerful compressors.
Using diving equipment, as Thai divers seem to be, is riskier but probably the only choice given the circumstances. There may be openings that are too small for a diving helmet, or it may be impossible to rig the umbilical line from outside the cave to where the children are.
How can children who have never dive dive? 19659006] The answer is that you make it as simple as possible for them. An integral mask, as children use it, does. Typical divers will wear a mask (such as large swimming goggles) that covers their eyes and will breathe through a separate regulator connected to their air tanks through a rubber hose.
An integral mask combines these two into one, and adds the possibility of having communications through the water. This would make a lot of sense because adult divers could talk to the kids throughout the dive, checking and making sure they are OK
Should they worry about it? 39, get "turns"?
"Elbows", or decompression sickness, is a medical condition caused by nitrogen bubbles in a person's bloodstream. It's a function of the time you spend at a given depth, and if you climb slowly enough so that the nitrogen in your blood is naturally expelled through your lungs.
The water in the caves does not seem deep enough What does the US Army do to help?
A Defense Department official who I spoke to said that at the request of the Thai government, there were about 30 US servicemen. On the spot, most parares of Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan. The official said that no members of the American service were diving into the cave.
The Air Force pararescuers are among the best combat nurses in the military and are all qualified divers. It is unclear what their role is at the entrance to the cave because the children who have been rescued until now have all been taken to local hospitals.
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