Eight members of a Thai soccer team that had been trapped in a cave in northern Thailand for more than two weeks have now been rescued. Four boys and their coach remain trapped.
The boys, who range in age from 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach had disappeared in the Tham Luang Nang Non system on June 23. International rescue groups and volunteers joined local authorities in a frantic search to find the missing team.
On July 2, they were finally discovered by British divers. They were perched on the muddy slope of a cave, unable to return the way they came because of flooding.
With the original entrance to the cave blocked, the only possible exit became a narrow path through the cave, much of it under water. The route is so dangerous that an experienced diver who was also a former member of the Thai Navy SEALs died on Friday while trying to reach the boys.
At one point, the passage that rescuers and the team must travel becomes so tight that scuba tanks need to be removed and carried in front of the divers.
Initially, rescuers had said that they wanted more time to be able to come up with a way to safely rescue the boys from the cave. Food, medical professionals, and oxygen were brought to the boys (the air in the cave at this point had started to get thin), as much water as possible was drained out of the caves, and billionaire inventor Elon Musk had volunteered some of his engineers and equipment to help.
However, the fast approach of monsoon season meant that rescuers were forced to speed up their timeline. If they failed to get the team out before the rain started, the rescue would quickly become impossible. The flooding would also shrink the small patch of ground that the team is currently camped out on.
This is a good graphic of what the kids and the divers are facing in terms of getting out. One portion is extremely narrow. #CaveRescue #ThailandCaveRescue pic.twitter.com/9BiqeGwVSV
— Matrixity (@Matrixity) July 8, 2018
For the privacy of the boys and their families, authorities have not yet revealed which boys have been rescued and which still remain in the cave.
A Danish dive instructor who was involved with the rescue operation said that the boys were "all totally calm," and that everything "went surprisingly well, we were expecting bad things to happen, and they didn't."
A local hospital has reportedly blocked off a floor for the team members and their families. The understandably hungry rescued boys were given a popular Thai rice dish.
