BREAKING NEWS Thai boys trapped in cave to be given 4 months of food and taught how to dive

[Sakeopete]

How is the air being circulated out? There must be fissures that allows the warm air to convection current out of the cave. Normally I would guess that fresh air enters the cave from the entrance. However that is flooded so did the 13 get fresh air for 9 days? If there are fissures couldn't the rescue team use a non toxic smoke to find where it exists the cave and us it to possibly make a hole?

[Kerryd]

I think they mean that they will ensure that there is enough food available in the event they can't get out before the rainy season ends, 4 months from now. It's not likely they'd try to stockpile 4 months of food into that little cavern all at once.

Basically, the government will pay for all the food those kids (and the coach of course) need until the time they are rescued, whether that be 4 weeks or 4 months or 6 weeks or 6 months.

Now that they know where they are, resupply won't be much of an issue. They can easily transport quantities of food, clothing, blankets and so on via the ropes, perhaps with a couple divers strategically positioned to keep things from getting stuck.

[NextStationBangkok]

3 hours ago, SkyNets said:

Que the international drill team

They are only arriving to Pattaya, not to 'Pattaya beach' yet. ?

[webfact]

Dangerous for footballers to dive out of cave: US expert

By The Nation

 

A US cave rescue expert on Tuesday warned that it could be dangerous to try to get the 12 trapped boys and their football coach to dive out of the Tham Luang cave.

 

A CNN reporter, Veronica Rocha, quoted American cave rescue expert Anmar Mirza as issuing the warning.

 

“Cave rescue expert Anmar Mirza says diving out of the cave is the most dangerous option. He says the safest option is to shelter in the place until the water level goes down,” Rocha said in her Twitter message.

 

“The option to bring them out by diving is the quickest but it’s also the most dangerous," Mirza, national coordinator of the US Cave Rescue Commission, also told the BBC.

 

Thai Navy SEAL divers and foreign diving experts are preparing to provide basic diving training to the trapped 13 footballers so that they could dive out of the partially flooded cave.

 

The boys have been given high-calorie gels and some food. Experts believe they may take at least two days to regain enough strength to dive.

 

Officials and experts believe it is dangerous for the boys to dive through the flooded narrow passage of the cave.

 

Meanwhile, the governor of Chiang Rai governor on Tuesday that the efforts to find exits via shafts would continue.

 

SourceL http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30349205

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-07-03

 

 

Latest update #thamluangcave #thamluang #ถ้ำหลวง #13ชีวิตติดถ้ำ pic.twitter.com/TnU7pa7Khl

— Howard Johnson (@Howardrjohnson) July 3, 2018

Rescue workers appeal for small full-face diving masks #thamluangcave #thamluang #ถ้ำหลวง #13ชีวิตติดถ้ำ pic.twitter.com/sgMxRbgCaM

— Howard Johnson (@Howardrjohnson) July 3, 2018

[billd766]

31 minutes ago, Docno said:

Nope. Eating too much too quickly (as this is a natural urge) will kill a starving person. They will have to portion the right (easily digestable food) in small amounts to avoid problems. Providing 4 months of food all at one time--if that is the plan--might be very risky... 

 

There will always be 2 or 3 rescuers in the cave with them untill they finally emerge and I am quite sure that they will be able to keep their eye of the food situation in the cave.

[Megasin1]

Absolutely fabulous that they have found them, the first phase is complete, now they have to plan carefully how they will get them out safely, the difficult bit. They are estimated to be 800m to 1km below ground, so even if you ignored the terrain the problem with drilling to them in such a small cave is firstly locating them. They have some electronic locating equipment in UK they are currently thinking about sending out when they are satisfied that it will be able to work that that far down. I am sure that they will look at many options, they will probably move on in the system to see if they can short dive them to a better location too, but I am sure that the last and most final resort would be to try and dive them out. If they think they can keep them safe underground through the rainy season they would opt for that first over risking their lives underwater. The rescue needs to be well planned, whatever route they choose to take, but most of all it needs to be the safest option for the boys and sometimes the safest option is to stay exactly where you are. At least now they know that they haven't been forgotten and people are doing whatever they can for them.

[Somchai Logic]

4 months???

That's longer than Thai "Navy Seal" training 

[marioDC]

4 hours ago, robblok said:

Nice.. but did you think about the fact that this is a cave and not all passages are easy to make. The divers even had to take of their gear at some time. So an inflexible object like that is not going to work in my opinion. Unless of course they will widen such passages.

Maybe I missed something here, but how did those boys get there in the first place ? I mean, surely they wouldn't have crawled through such narrow places when they were exploring the cave (obviously before the flooding came and surprised them). There has to be a passage that is wide enough for them to have walked to the place. Unless they all had speleology lessons before, but with no gear I doubt that's what they were doing. So I think it is quite possible to have such a rescue-tube in there ... but hopefully the water level will decrease enough for them to get out fast and without any harm! Great news, probably the best of the year. Hats off to all those involved in the rescue !!

[DrTuner]

13 minutes ago, Jupitero said:

Really? I thought the rainy season began in May. So did the 3 Thais I just asked. Guess I''ll tell them they're wrong - DrTuner sez..

How about asking the 13 Thais who looked up, saw no rain and entered a cave. The rains are just starting now.

[robblok]

1 minute ago, marioDC said:

Maybe I missed something here, but how did those boys get there in the first place ? I mean, surely they wouldn't have crawled through such narrow places when they were exploring the cave (obviously before the flooding came and surprised them). There has to be a passage that is wide enough for them to have walked to the place. Unless they all had speleology lessons before, but with no gear I doubt that's what they were doing. So I think it is quite possible to have such a rescue-tube in there ... but hopefully the water level will decrease enough for them to get out fast and without any harm! Great news, probably the best of the year. Hats off to all those involved in the rescue !!

Either I am wrong or you are but I recall a topic where they asked for volunteers and had a drawing of the cave and in it they had marked where one had to remove scuba-gear (underwater) to go on. When I was young I visited some caves in France.. I had no experience but went through some pretty tight passages. You have to understand a scuba tank makes you real wide so its quite possible.

[roo860]

Whats happened is a fact. No point discussing it now imo.
 
I am keen to learn whats ahead of them to get out. They are 3 klms in, right? How many sections are totally submerged? How many are walkable, wadeable? Does anyone have this info to give a clear understanding of whats in the path out for them all?

According to BBC news, it's 6kms.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[jerry921]

Besides trying to scuba them all the way out, or drill a rescue shaft to where they are, I guess there's a combo option of drilling a shaft to the "pattaya beach" part of the cavern and only scubaing them back to that part and then up the shaft & out. Maybe that's an option if the pattaya beach area is larger and they have a better ability to locate it from the surface. It would also reduce the risk of a cave-in right on top of them.

 

I don't know which section of diving is the most difficult or tightest, if the tightest or hardest dive is between the entrance and pattaya beach cavern, drilling to there might work best.

[Jonmarleesco]

3 hours ago, Bangna Betty said:

So fantastic they have been found alive. Sincerely hope they can be got out safely. They don’t really need an entire dive course - just some basics and confidence to be underwater with a mask. Very hard for these kids who may not even know how to swim, and terrible water conditions. 

None of them can swim, apparently.

[pokerface1]

1 hour ago, tropo said:

Does the cave fully drain? If it does, this is probably their only option. Even experienced scuba divers would have a very difficult time handling a long cave dive like that. It often takes years for adult divers to gain the confidence for cave diving as there's no escape if something goes wrong. Cave diving is a special course you take once you're already an experienced diver. In PADI training you need to complete the advanced open water diver course before you can start the cave diving course... and you can't do this course until your 15 years old.

Yes a very difficult and especially dangerous dive. Being such a long dive there may be times when the diver does not have his buddy swimming beside him. This factor alone is bad enough let alone having to handle a panicked teenager under his wing.They have found 13 boys but how many will reach safety that's the big question 

[PEE TEE]

Mabey months to get out WOW! at least they will be fed and are safe  lesson learned boys . lets hope they can get out soon . 

Good thing is the parents can have some peace of mind .will be looking for more posts 

[KKr]

am just very happy that the people were located and are relatively speaking well.
Congrats especially to the dive team that had the idea to open and go through a very small passage.
Hope they get out quick,
and if it takes a little longer, we may have a new world champion Chess or Checkers in the making .

Hurrah !

[Jackin1960]

Fear would be the greatest challenge for anyone who has never dived let alone in a tight dark space. I am sure the guys there have covered all the possible ways to get them out and will continue to work at a solution. In the mean time teaching the boys to dive and keeping them busy will help keep them focused. I wish them every success.

[wealthychef]

5 hours ago, oilinki said:

 

I didn't know that the divers had to take their gears off. That makes the rescue operation way more difficult. Perhaps it would be possible to make the rescue capsule flexible? 

 

The idea is to have the kids inside, so that even if they would panic during the rescue operation, they couldn't harm themselves, like taking the full diving mask away.

 

 

 

 

What about giving them something like a SNUBA head piece, that you cannot remove, and a long tube with air going to it?  

I'm a diver, and wow, just thinking about the logistics in practical reality, this is really a tough one.   At least one boy will have trouble doing scuba, probably more, just statistically.  And the water will be murky and low visibility, possible currents, tight spaces... wow, difficult.  I can see why they are giving them months of food.  

[pokerface1]

2 hours ago, ALFREDO said:

He for sure will feel miserable since 10 days already - ?

Just wait until he gets the bill for the recovery costs?

[Artisi]

5 hours ago, canardo said:

Food for 4 month? Wow, didn't see that coming, that it could take soooo long... 

The possibility of re-flooding and the chances of training the kids in the "correct" use of breathing gear to the level of competence needed for such a long drive make the 4 months a reasonable comment - remember it is the wet session. 

 

The only possible alternate is a complete diversion of the incoming flow and to pump the system fairly dry, assuming this can be achieved - what is probably unknown at the moment is the inflow from other sources other than the main entry during heavy rain and local flooding.

 

However, the kids have been located in what appears to be good health and there is time at the moment to ensure everything needed for a long stay can be put in place - probably even giving access to farcebook and Line.

 

[whaleboneman]

19 minutes ago, thenoilif said:

I don’t think anything will happen to him legally. The sign said to avoid entering in July it wasn’t July yet. 

 

Also, why do people keep going on about the coach? It’s getting just as bad as the tank air/oxygen debate. Oh wait, I am guessing mos of you are from the West and always need to demonize/criticize something about even the most positive of news.

I say kudos to the coach. A 25 year old man giving his time to coach a youth football team and with enough leadership skills to take care of the team for 9 days deserves some praise. He may have made an error in judgement - let's not hold it against him. This team - if they stay together - will be tough to beat!

[HHTel]

Escape pods have the problem of not being flexible, are full of air which would make it very difficult to tow underwater.

Drilling?  Apart from the logistics, the mapping of the caves is far from accurate and for a successful drill they would need pinpoint accuracy.

The UK is currently assessing an electronic device which could map the caves with accuracy.  If it's found to work through heavy rock then it will be dispatched to Thailand.

 

 

[Guest]

8 minutes ago, wealthychef said:

What about giving them something like a SNUBA head piece, that you cannot remove, and a long tube with air going to it?  

I'm a diver, and wow, just thinking about the logistics in practical reality, this is really a tough one.   At least one boy will have trouble doing scuba, probably more, just statistically.  And the water will be murky and low visibility, possible currents, tight spaces... wow, difficult.  I can see why they are giving them months of food.  

Something more sturdy and unbreakable in the event that the kids panic during rescue could actually be a workable solution.

 

Deep dive helmets, older and newer versions.

 

 

[Megasin1]

Personally I am hoping that it is quicker than 4 months to get the boys out. I don't want them to be put at risk by trying to rush the operation, however I don't think I can put up with 4 months of armchair experts on TVF making inane and ridiculous comments on the same subject for such a long period. My ex Thai wife, who is upper middle class, well educated and speaks really good English almost agrees with me on this one. ?

[Gulfsailor]

6 minutes ago, oilinki said:

Something more sturdy and unbreakable in the event that the kids panic during rescue could actually be a workable solution.

 

Deep dive helmets, older and newer versions.

 

 

Such helmets only work as long as one's head  is facing upwards, otherwise the air escapes and water enters.

[jossthaifarang]

1 hour ago, tropo said:

You don't need a body suit if all you want to do is get bodies out. 

This suit is airtight with an air supply, and it stops them taking off the mask under the water.

[tropo]

16 minutes ago, wealthychef said:

What about giving them something like a SNUBA head piece, that you cannot remove, and a long tube with air going to it?  

I'm a diver, and wow, just thinking about the logistics in practical reality, this is really a tough one.   At least one boy will have trouble doing scuba, probably more, just statistically.  And the water will be murky and low visibility, possible currents, tight spaces... wow, difficult.  I can see why they are giving them months of food.  

Not only children. I had quite a bit of difficulty myself when first learning the sport. There were quite a few scary moments, and that was in a well lit safe environment. Some people adapt faster than others, but it took me many months of regular diving to START to be comfortable under water.

[ttrd]

RE - The operation to rescue the 13 missing Mu Pa Academy football club members was a success, the head of the mission declared on Tuesday

 

Well, noone has actually been rescued so far, but found. The rescue part may still face some challenges prior to the lads are actually out of the Cave. Hopefully this will be a smooth operation without any surprises...

[tropo]

Just now, Gulfsailor said:

Such helmets only work as long as one's head  is facing upwards, otherwise the air escapes and water enters.

This is an opportunity for technological advancements. I'm going to wager that they will come up with some way to move them underwater (other than scuba) and not wait 4 months. They can put men on the moon, but can't get them out of a cave?

[Kadilo]

1 minute ago, tropo said:

Not only children. I had quite a bit of difficulty myself when first learning the sport. There were quite a few scary moments, and that was in a well lit safe environment. Some people adapt faster than others, but it took me many months of regular diving to START to be comfortable under water.

Seems an enormous task training the boys in such a short space of time. 

Particulary as non swimmers they may have a real fear of water, but with the

emormous amount of courage they have shown so far who knows.