The challenges facing the rescue of the Thai boys trapped in flooded cave
The second rescue mission to retrieve the eight remaining boys and their soccer coach trapped inside a Thai cave must overcome a number of challenges if it is to be successful.
Officials say it could take up to four days to complete the rescue of the remaining members of the soccer team from inside the cave in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand.
It was announced the next dive will take place 10 to 20 hours after the first was completed. Authorities temporarily stopped their efforts on Monday to replenish air tanks along the cave’s treacherous exit route.
British Cave Rescue Council Chairman Peter Dennis told Sunrise this morning that the decision to delay the next dive was due to the strenuous work the divers are undergoing.
“It is an absolutely exhausting experience. It is very challenging and physically arduous,” he said.
“With the extra commitment of assisting these boys out of the cave, they have quite a challenge before them and they really do need to rest so that they are able to make clear decisions.
“It is their lives as well as the boys that are at stake.”
The dangerous and complicated plan unfolded amid heavy rain and the threat of rising water underground and looks set to hamper the next dive.
“It really impacts all aspects of the rescue. It will make the clarity of the water much harder to see through because the floodwaters will increase the sediment,” Dennis said.
“There might even be vegetation and material washed into the caves to add to that.
“And then in the areas further out where there is a space above the river.
“There is the added challenge of the higher flow rates and the risk of them being washed away off the guidelines.”
Authorities have said the monsoons could cause water to rise in the cave.
That along with dwindling oxygen levels added to the urgency of getting the team out. Earlier efforts to pump water out of the cave have been set back by heavy downpours.
Chiang Rai provincial acting Governor Narongsak Osatanakorn said Saturday that experts told him new rain could shrink the unflooded space where the boys are sheltering to just 10 square meters.
Narongsak told media the healthiest boys have been taken out first, with the remaining expected to prove a bigger challenge for rescue teams.
The boys have only been learning to dive only since July 2 and each will be accompanied by two divers.
Thirteen foreign divers and five Thai navy SEALs were taking part in the key leg of the rescue, taking the boys from where they have been sheltering and through dark, tight and twisting passageways filled with muddy water and strong currents.
Dennis said a shift pattern could not be used for the divers as there is only a handful of skilled divers who are capable of the mission.
“There are only a few cave divers with those sorts of skills,” he said.
