Rescue of Thai caves: boys learn to dive as authorities race against time to free them | News from the world



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The 12 boys trapped in a cave in northern Thailand are trained to breathe through diving masks as they prepare for a possible attempt to exit the cave

Boys and their football coach are stranded before the storms arrive, after which the extraction will become "almost impossible" for months, according to a coordinator of the international rescue effort.

Teach boys, who do not know how to swim, use the use of breathing apparatus so that they can be escorted out of the cave system by rescue divers is considered to be the only way to swim. the most realistic option that would allow boys to be saved from caves before the monsoon strikes later in the week

. To use the gear, none of them tried to get through the water. Even if the authorities manage to drain enough water to allow the boys to get out of the cave, they will still have to go through short underwater passages.

map of the thai cave
Diagram of the Thai cave
Ruengrit Changkwanyuen, a coordinator of the Thai contingent of the international diving team who located the boys Monday night, said the group was on a hill and away from sudden floods

"But Rescuers have to work quickly because Friday, a storm is approaching, and if the rain starts again, the cave will be completely flooded, "said Changkwanyuen. "If this happens, it will be almost impossible to send supplies or keep in touch with them."

New recordings were made on Wednesday morning showing children treated by a Thai Navy doctor who spent the night at four cave complex where boys were trapped for the last 11 days.

A nurse and up to four soldiers are also with the group in an elevated cave near an area known as Pattaya Beach and were monitoring their health and trying to keep their spirits high. "We take care of them as our own children," said Narongsak Osatanakorn, the governor of Chiang Rai Province.

A spokesman for the Thai government said the boys' mental health had been managed by their coach. "[He] advises them to go to bed, of course, to meditate, not to move their bodies too much, not to waste their energy," said Lieutenant-General Werachon Sukondhapatipak

. and physically healthy after receiving food and water, but still had to talk to their parents. An attempt to send a cell phone to the cave was sloppy when a tight seal around the device was broken.





  A team of SEAL divers from the Royal Thai Navy inspecting the tunnel filled with water in Tham Luang Cave.



A team of SEAL divers from the Royal Thai Navy inspecting the tunnel filled with water in the Tham. The cave of Luang. Photography: AFP / Getty Images

"Once the phone reaches them, we want families to talk with them and a lot of pressure will be relieved," an army spokesman said Tuesday. "Today, we will not be able to do that," Osatanakorn said at an early morning briefing.

"We have to be 100% sure that all children will come out at the same time. Some might be ready before others. If they are not ready, or if it is risky, we will not withdraw them.

Authorities respected their main plan of trying to drain enough water from the cave to allow boys to go out, he said, efforts that were helped by an unusually dry day at Mae Sei .

"The most important thing is to lower the water levels," Osatanakorn said. "The water has decreased a lot but when it rains, we can not fight it, it's not raining, we can have good results, time is running out to get the kids out."

He said that more water was being pumped off the site than there was any that was leaking and that the divers were working to seal holes in them. the rocks around the boys.But he refused to set a deadline for their evacuation. "Mermaid Subsea Services in Bangkok, a company that usually supplies equipment for subsea oil and gas extraction operations, has been in talks with the Thai authorities to provide masks for any attempt to extract the children through the cave system. The company provides diving masks AGA Divator – scuba models – specially designed for children.





  Rescuers prepare small diving masks to deliver them inside the cavern. Photography: Linh Pham / Getty Images
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<p>  The boys will be dressed in overalls, boots and helmets, and the divers will use an 8mm static rope that is already in place to guide them through the cave system, said Changkwanyuen  </p>
<p>  will carry their own 12 liter oxygen tanks – they are more likely to be supplied oxygen supply to a marine diver. In addition to this primary reserve, fully filled "stage tanks" are also in place every 25 to 50 meters along the road, allowing boys quick access to oxygen if their stocks are low.  </p>
<p>  Chinese diver Zhou Yahui, who had just returned from the cave, said: "The water level will drop, but that does not mean that they will have It's impossible to guarantee that. "</p>
<p>  Hundreds of Thai soldiers and police are also flown in dense jungles over the cave system to search for access points. could facilitate access to children. </p>
<p>  They also allow the authorities to drill directly into the cave where boys take refuge, considered as a potentially less risky method of extraction, unlike children who have to cross a system of jagged and muddy caves that leave wounded and cuts [19659002] Volunteer divers involved in the search for boys said that getting them out through the cave if the rain started to rain was full of risks. Claus Rasmussen, one of the members of the international team working with the Thai Navy, said: "This is not the simplest and scariest way" </p>
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  A Thai rescuer prepares oxygen tanks for diving after the death of 12 boys



A Thai rescuer prepares oxygen tanks for diving after 12 boys and their football coach were found alive. Photography: Sakchai Lalit / AP

"It's a huge system of caves, nearly 10 km long," said Maksym Polejaka, another cave diver who spent five days leading the seals of the Thai Navy before finding them . When the rains are plentiful, most of the cavern system is completely submerged, he says.

"You only have pockets of air, you dive for 20 meters, then surface, then you dive for 30 meters, and then surface, the largest passage you need to dive [takes] maybe 20 minutes. "

The rain also brings strong currents that slow down progress considerably and make swimming impossible, he added. "After the current has become slower, you can swim, but barely."

Divers took more than three hours to reach the ledge where the boys sheltered Monday, but the return of the current took about 50 minutes. 19659002] "The water level is stable now because hundreds of pumps are eliminating water and people are trying to block the springs, but if you stopped pumping, or it was raining, the water level would rise immediately, "Polejaka said.

Rasmussen stated that relief options were re-evaluated "on an hourly basis". Even a small amount of rain would quickly flood the cave system and nullify all the progress made so far to drain it. "[Rain] is the only thing that can really upset what happens unless one of the kids gets sick," he said.

In addition to finding ways to extract boys in the coming days, also providing for a scenario in which the rescue can not take place, preparing the shipment of food and medical supplies that could last the next four months until the end of the monsoon.

Thai soldiers carried out their first evacuation exercise on Tuesday afternoon. a column from the entrance of the cave to a field where 13 ambulances are waiting to transport the group to the hospital.

Mental health workers said that one of them would be responsible for accompanying every child in the ambulance with one of the boy's parents. The group entered the cave since June 23, when they entered the interior after a football training session and were reportedly trapped by the rising waters

Report additional Lily Kuo

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