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BANGKOK-Rescuers found 12 missing boys and their soccer coach alive, at the bottom of a troglodyte complex in northern Thailand, and are now preparing to give them an intensive diving course so that they can escape the waters that trapped them 10 days ago. Narongsak Osottanakorn, governor of Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand, told reporters Tuesday that if rescuers did not teach diving techniques, they might have to wait months before the rainy season end.
Underwater diving experts from the United Kingdom and the Thai navy SEAL found the 13 people on Monday night. The breakthrough came after dewatering torrential rains, allowing a network of pumps to reduce water levels and allowing rescue teams to penetrate deeper into the six-mile-long Tham Luang cave in search of the team and their coach. The SEALs have spent much of the past few days installing relays with air tanks and other equipment every 25 meters, while other rescue teams practiced maneuvers. Evacuation
.
Given the weakened state of boys and their coach after 10 days of hiding, the focus now is on how to get them out of the cave quickly and safely.
The biggest problem is that the passages connecting the rooms of the cave are still completely blocked by the muddy waters. Rescuers evaluate whether teens and their trainer are able to make the difficult journey of three hours at the entrance while trying to maintain their strength with food and water.
The Thai Navy SEALs reported that they provided the team with energy gels. In addition, two paramedics plunged through flooded passageways to assess the health of the team as rescuers find the best way to proceed, which could be a rescue effort of a week.
generators feeding water pumps that were brought as far as Bangkok, about 460 miles south, to control the elements and facilitate the exit of the boys and their trainers [19659003]. everything is safe, but the mission is not over, "Narongsak said." So far, we have just found them. The next mission is to take them out of the cave and send them home.
The boys, aged 11 to 16, entered the cave after playing their football match on Saturday, June 23. Ekkapol Chantawong, a year old, has sometimes taken the team known as wild boars during expeditions.
They left their bikes outside with backpacks and soccer cleats.
This time, however, the rainy season was in full swing. The Tham Luang caves are often flooded from June to October and signs warn people not to enter.
When they did not come back, one of the boys' mothers set off the alarm.
Finding them has turned out to be a huge technical enterprise. Experts from Thailand, the United States and the United Kingdom have examined infrared maps and images drawn by drones looking for weak spots on the densely wooded ridges that rise up the caves. Engineers of the oil company
PTT Exploration & Production
PCL helped pierce a hole in the cave walls to accelerate the flow of water as the rain continued to flow.
None of their efforts have borne fruit. At one point, rescuers dropped packets filled with food, water and flashlights through a crack in the cavernous roof as well as writing materials and instructions for getting them out. boxes of polystyrene from the cave.
On the outside, Buddhist monks held prayer ceremonies in an anxious nation, united after years of deep political and geographical divisions.
Then, a pause in the rains gave the water pumps a chance to get closer to the waters On Sunday, the rescuers established an advanced base inside the cavern before making a final effort until they reached the water. in the place where they thought the team could be housed on a knoll. of raised rock, about 600 yards inland.
On Monday, the teams at SEAL and other rescue workers worked to widen the passages inland. They penetrated more deeply into the complex until the instincts of the rescuers proved correct: the boys had taken refuge 400 meters farther than expected.
The Thai SEALs later released a video clip of boys, some still wearing their football jerseys, sheltering on a raised rocky spur at the approach of British divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen
]. How many of you? 13? Brilliant! Mr. Stanton could be heard saying. "Many people are coming in. We are the first ones."
Some children asked what day it was. "Monday," he said. "You've been here for 10 days."
Rescue teams move more air tanks deeper into the cave complex to facilitate the extraction effort. The difficulty of the field means that it takes about three hours to spread the word about the boys' state out of the cave.
Rescuers are also concentrating on pumping as much water as possible from the submerged cave system. None of the boys can swim or have had any diving experience.
The use of drills to open the walls of the cave is also considered a long-term approach given the thickness of the rock and the difficulty of properly placing the drilling equipment of the side of the ridge heavily forested. the boys are about two kilometers in the cave and between 800 meters and 1 kilometer below the surface. They are also located in a relatively small space and this would make any attempt at potential drilling a very difficult means of rescue, "said Bill Whitehouse, Vice President of the British Cave Rescue Council, in a statement.
Anmar Mirza,
a coordinator of the National Cave Rescue Commission in the United States, said the drama is far from over.
"The rescue may be very difficult and uninsured, they have been found alive, now they have to stay alive in very difficult circumstances," he said. "A change of weather with more rain could stop progress."
Write to James Hookway at [email protected]
