Elon Musk calls British diver from the Thai cave rescue a 'pedo guy' in Twitter outburst
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has called a diver who helped in the Thai cave rescue a “pedo guy” in a lengthy Twitter thread.
“You know what, don’t bother showing the video. We will make one of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo. Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.”
Musk was responding to criticism from British caver Vernon Unsworth, who told CNN that Musk “can stick his submarine where it hurts” after describing his offer to help with a miniature submersible as a “PR stunt”.
Unsworth, who lives in Thailand and has spent years exploring the Tham Luang cave system where the boys were trapped, was a key player in the dramatic rescue of the 12 boys and their soccer coach.
In his first tweet of the thread, Musk said he didn’t meet Unsworth and that he “never saw this British expat guy who lives in Thailand.”
In the same tweet, Musk also responded to Unsworth’s claim that the he was asked to leave the cave and his help was not appreciated by officials leading the rescue mission. “Thai navy seals escorted us in — total opposite of wanting us to leave,” Musk wrote.
“Never saw this British expat guy who lives in Thailand (sus) at any point when we were in the caves. Only people in sight were the Thai navy/army guys, who were great. Thai navy seals escorted us in — total opposite of wanting us to leave.”
Believing the sub he built would have been able to get the trapped children out of the cage, Musk wrote, “I challenge this dude to show final rescue video.”
In his next tweet six minutes later, Musk replied, “don’t bother showing the video” and promised to send his sub to the spot where the soccer team was trapped.
“I was *asked* to help repeatedly,” Musk continued in another tweet. “Declined several times, as I thought they had it in hand & only agreed to help when Thai SEAL died (deep cave pumps not operating at time). We designed the mini-sub to Stanton’s specifications *and* brought a flexible rescue pod just in case.”
Musk was widely mocked on social media after the boys were rescued without the use of his submarine. He hit back at his critics this week, saying the dive team had instructed him to keep working on the submarine.
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