Thailand - FOUND ALIVE - Officials Believe 12 Boys And Coach Trapped In Cave , 23 June 2018

[Cryptic]

Efforts to rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach hinge on pumping out water so that navy divers have headroom to operate. Navy SEAL divers leading the search are seriously handicapped by muddy water that fills some chambers of the cave to the ceiling. The divers could proceed only when enough water has been pumped out so there is breathing space between the water and the ceiling. The divers will also soon start using special oxygen tanks that provide longer diving times.

Yikes, this really illustrates how dangerous the rescue is for the divers. My guess is that the pumps had to be used to give headroom because the divers could not find staged tanks.

Not only is there a need to dive in submerged caves ( risky with no room for error regarding passages and oxygen), but the water is also muddy which then bumps up the risk factor to 'extremely risky'.

As a side note, the special dive gear is probably re breathers which can clean and recirculate the oxygen to the diver. This allows for longer dives and also eliminates the need to cache and then actually being able to find staged oxygen tanks in muddy waters. But... my understanding is that rebreathing equipment is difficult to use. The Thai Seals might be learning the equipment on the fly while attempting a rescue in flooded caves. That definetly takes Special Forces type nerve.

 

[Eevee Pie]

Is it dark in those caves?

It must be pitch black in there. How terrifying.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

It's 6am there now and the sun's just come up, google tells me it's still raining. Hopefully rescuers find them today; what a frightening situation, for the rescuers too. Scuba is great in nice, clear water in the sunshine but the thought of it in a dark, wet cave is very unsettling.

 

[creepcrusher]

I can't stop checking to see if these boys have been rescued yet. I'm getting antsy. Can't imagine how their parents feel.

 

[sweetcaro]

4th day, let's hope that today is the day they are found.

 

[Hatfield]

Oh no. I thought they would have been found and out of the cave by now. This is very upsetting to read that they have not been able to get them out of the cave yet.

I hope the drops from above were able to give them food water and the notes to stay put until rescue.

Prayers for them.

 

[Jax49]

Nothing much new but explains why divers need space above water.

Rescuers to pump water from Thai cave in search for missing soccer team

A SEAL diver said the water was so murky that even with lights they could not see where they were going underwater, so they needed to be able to lift their heads above the wate

 

[Jennifer17]

I am losing hope for these young men.

 

[Cryptic]

I am losing hope for these young men.

I understand your fears.

Look on the bright side however, they have not found any bodies yet either. In addition, the presence of flooded caverns of muddy water could be important as well.

Even cave diving in over all clear water with well established routes can be hazardous and have the need to go slow.

Cave diving with out established routes in poor, or non existent visibility is done at the pace of a crawl as even experienced divers can quickly get disoriented and drown a few meters off a safety line. Unlike walking in say, a pitch black cave, divers have little or no hints as to spatial orientation / and up, down, right, left etc.

In short, the boys could well be trapped in a dry (or even relatively dry) part of the cave and are waiting for the rescuers to slowly move towards them.

 

[creepcrusher]

Rescue teams battle high water to find boys missing in Thai cave

This article was updated 25 minutes ago. Here's some good news per article:

Messages exchanged between the team members showed they planned to explore the cave and had taken flashlights and some food.

So they hopefully have/had light and some food to hold them over. The main worry right now is the oxygen levels and water.

 

[JerseyGirl]

Photos of the group of teenage boys and their soccer coach...

Missing Thai boys: Officials warn time running out in search for soccer players in caves - CNN

 

[bluedivergirl]

I agree with Cryptic; they are using rebreathers. Cave diving and low vis diving are difficult. Kudos to the rescuers.

I am worried about temperature. The caves are reported to be about 77 degrees F. If the young men are in the water, this is bad. Water carries your body heat away quickly. I hope they are together, and somehow dry.

 

[Eevee Pie]

This is a really interesting article about a group back in 1967 that was lost in a cave in England due to rising rain waters.

What lies beneath: Mossdale caving disaster

The description of the extensive rescue efforts reminded me of this. Unfortunately it had a tragic ending, but there is hope in how much is being done to rescue these boys.

 

[Hatfield]

This is a really interesting article about a group back in 1967 that was lost in a cave in England due to rising rain waters.

What lies beneath: Mossdale caving disaster

The description of the extensive rescue efforts reminded me of this. Unfortunately it had a tragic ending, but there is hope in how much is being done to rescue these boys.

Wow. That is an amazing and scary account of what can happen when a cave floods. Thanks for sharing.

Lets hope these boys get out alive.

 

[Hatfield]

If anyone has ever watched cave explorers on TV you get a feeling of how bad the situation is. What can happen is some caves have long narrow passages to get to other parts of the cave and if those passages become filled with water then it blocks your exit. Even large chambers in a cave could even flood depending on where a cave is located.

The hope is that the boys have managed to get to a spot in the cave where its dry. So even though they may not be able to go back through the flooded sections the hope is that they can remain alive long enough for rescuers to get to them.

This is so sad and I cannot imagine family members having to wait for news. Uggggg Its been so many days already Ugggg

More prayers for their safe exit.

 

[Elainera]

A few snippets from this article highlight the difficulties rescuers face:

Rescuers seek to drill hole in hunt for boys missing in Thai cave - Kuwait Times

"Thai rescue workers will drill a narrow shaft into a cave where 12 schoolboys and their soccer coach are believed to be trapped by flood waters, Thailand’s interior minister said on Wednesday, the fourth day of a search that has been hampered by heavy rain."

“Tomorrow we can drill into the mountain but we won’t drill too deep. Just enough to allow people through,” interior minister Anupong Paochinda told reporters in Bangkok.

"While distraught relatives and friends gathered at the mouth of the cave, rescue workers pumped water out, but the persistent heavy rain has slowed their progress. “Water is the biggest challenge. There is a lot of debris and sand that gets stuck while pumping,” Army officer Sergeant Kresada Wanaphum said. “We have to switch out units because there is not enough air in there,” he added"

"Vern Unsworth, a British cave explorer based in Chiang Rai who has joined the search, said a lot of water was seeping into the cave from two directions. “There is a watershed inside, which is unusual, it means there is water coming in from two directions,” Unsworth said."

"A guide book described the Tham Luang cave as having an “impressive entrance chamber” leading to a marked path. It then describes the end of the path and the start of a series of chambers and boulders. “This section of the cave has not been thoroughly explored. After a couple of hundred meters the cave reduces in size to a mud floored passage 2 meters wide and 3 meters high,” author Martin Ellis wrote in ‘The Caves of Thailand Volume 2’. "

 

[Elainera]

"Heavy rainfall stymied efforts to rescue members of a youth soccer team trapped in a cave in northern Thailand by flooding underground passages faster than water can be pumped out, a senior official said Wednesday."

"Navy divers who have been working their way through the complex said that water levels were rising in some places at a rate of 15 centimeters (6 inches) per hour early Wednesday.
“We tried to pump the water (out of the chamber) but the water keeps rising. That means the water that comes in with the rain is still much more than what we can pump out,” said Chiang Rai Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn."

Rain, high water complicate cave search for Thai soccer team

 

[Hazelnutty]

Checking in on the boys. Thoughts and prayers for recuers , families , coach & boys

 

[creepcrusher]

The longer it takes the scarier it gets. I pray they all hang on as long as they can. The rain has to stop soon!

 

[CoverMeCagney]

The longer it takes the scarier it gets. I pray they all hang on as long as they can. The rain has to stop soon!

Unfortunately it's the start of the rainy season up there, got a few more months of it.