Looking at the maps that BBell posted, I suspect the problem with trying to drill to the trapped kids is not the competence of the drilling crews, but getting their rigs safely above the cave system. Building the road and platform is likely a couple of week effort after you have determined where to drill. It also sound like the cave system is at best partially mapped meaning that determining where to drill could take some time.
A few weeks time that those kids probably don't have. After living here a decade I would not put all my marbles in the basket that says they can get this done right. And while I love being retired here, their technical expertise has been shown lacking in many ways.
Pump like crazy. They will likely need to do that anyway if they decide to leave them there for weeks, hoping against hope that a large bore drilling rig can solve the predicament they are in.
I'll check with the significant other when she gets home from work about what Thai language news is saying about it.