Posted on 07/04/2018 12:41:48 PM PDT by BBell
BANGKOK (AP) — Now that the missing Thai soccer team has been found, the next step is determining how to get the boys and the coach safely out of a partly flooded cave in northern Thailand. A look at the options and why extracting the 12 boys and the coach could take some time:
THE CAVE IS HUGE
THE CAVE IS HUGE
Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai province stretches under a mountainside for up to 10 kilometers (6 miles), much of it a string of narrow passageways that lead to wide chambers and then back to narrow passageways. The rocky and muddy ground makes several changes in elevation along the way. The British Cave Rescue Council, which has members taking part in the operation, estimates the boys are around 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) into the cave and somewhere between 800 meters (half a mile) to 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) below the surface. Other estimates put the boys as far as 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) into the cave.
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THE CAVE IS FLOODED
Finding the boys took more than nine days, partly because of how difficult it is to move around the cave. The cave floods during Thailand's rainy season and even elite Thai navy SEAL divers were finding it difficult to move through the muddy waters, currents and tight passageways.
SAFETY FIRST
Thai authorities say they are committed to "100 percent safety" when they consider how to extract the boys, who don't appear to be in urgent need of medical evacuation. Chiang Rai provincial Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn said: "We worked so hard to find them and we will not lose them."
(Excerpt) Read more at thetimes-tribune.com ...
No problem. Millions, if not billions, are following this story.
This is a fascinating story; I just hope none of the rescuers perish from their efforts having to make multiple trips to their stranded point.
Good article.
They said they’ve already hooked up dive lines, glow sticks, and can store extra oxygen tanks along the way.
That seems to be a good method, to my untrained eye.
Also on a side note:
>> Still, the British Cave Rescue Council said
There is actually a club, that has meetings about cave rescues? There is literally a club for everything.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36097300
This tells a bit about some of the crazy dangers they could face. It seems similar to what’s happening now.
Except these were all pro’s, and Thailand is dealing with kids.
Good grief, I just skimmed that but it’s amazing.
I’m sure one of the problems is even if they give these boys rudimentary training, they are small and still at risk of hypothermia and panicking if they try to get out underwater.
If the choice is between swimming out and waiting months for the Monsoon season to end then it wouldn’t have to be rudimentary training. If they spent a week giving daily scuba diving lessons to them they’s still be way ahead of the alternative. Being teenage boys I’d bet they’d be up for it.
Sometimes those British class distinctions come in handy.
Prayers for all concerned.
> they are small and still at risk of hypothermia
Yeah, that’s another layer of difficulty to add. The videos I saw on the news, showed kids, but man, they were SKINNY kids. I know they’ve been low/out of food for a week, but they were very scrawny.
That would likely up the risk of hypothermia. Feed em’ some cheeseburgers for a couple weeks, while training them to not panic.
I dunno, I hope for the best. It just seems that if this was happening in Texas or Montana, we’d have those kids out already.
Yep. Absolutely amazing story. We put a man on the moon 50 years ago but can’t get boys out of a cave they walked in to.
It usually does not make the news like this one does but there are a lot of cave rescues.
People look at caves and think, "how hard can it be?"
They do the same thing to mountains, with the same results.
There is every reason for caution here. I’ve logged over 200 dives, some in caves, and no matter how safe the circumstances are, some people will panic when using scuba equipment for the first time. There is something powerfully unnatural about breathing underwater. You cannot easily predict who will take it in stride and who will balk and have a panic reaction. All you can really predict is that some will and some won’t.
“...they are small and still at risk of hypothermia...”
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There are wet suits in kid sizes.
Is it feasible to drill an escape hole above the chamber they are in and lift them out? This was done for Chilean miners several years ago.
That’s fair. I’ve not dived before, and I could totally see me wanting to panic. I mean it’s easy to sit here, in the safety of my home, sipping a drink, and say “I’d never panic”. Honestly though, I don’t know how’d I react. I’d like to think I’d be calm. But, it’s easy to be calm till it happens. And we’re talking kids. Thanks for the perspective.
I know they would have to relay to them a wetsuit and SCUBA gear; I just don’t know how long they would be in the water before getting out, if they did decide to try it. I can see why they might think it’s too risky, if they are safe where they are and are getting some protein drinks.
I wonder why there isn’t some kind of zero buoyancy sealed capsule that could hold a kid and O2 supply long enough for a a trained diver to pull through, or if some kind of cable guidance system could be rigged.
90% of diving is mental, and maybe more. You just have to keep calm and remain methodical no matter what’s happening to you. That’s harder than you would think because so many alarming things can happen: your mask might fog up or flood, you might get disoriented, you might feel claustrophobic, you could find the air your breathing a bit tinny, or you could just get hysterical for no reason. Even if you don’t panic and only get nervous, you’ll burn through your air in no time. I am ever thankful that I trained in a quarry where the water temperature was below 50 degrees and visibility was no more than two feet, and no one really knew how deep the bottom was or what equipment might be down there to snag you. No place ever could be as bad as that, so everything else seemed easier.
Waiting until October for the Monsoon to stop is a bad idea because between now and then, the water in that cave is sure to rise and possibly flood the area where the boys are now.
They need a better plan than just waiting for the Monsoon to end in October.
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