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Int'l rescue effort closes in on soccer team trapped for 9 days in a flooded Thai cave

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By clapclapclap
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Deej
Deej

"Remember the Thai Teens"?

NotActuallyALonghorn
NotActuallyALonghorn

Of course there's a happy ending. It is Thailand after all.

Mojo Hand
Mojo Hand

Those days stuck in the cave were the second-most boring thing the soccer team has done together. 

CoTex

CoTex 1162

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, Ten Bears said:

You would have to put the pumps in the cave and push the water out.  A perfect vacuum will only pull pull a water column up 34 feet or so.

Well Schlitterbahn figured it out there Mr. Bernoulli, so It can’t be that hard.

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Pancho

Pancho 45059

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

I'm wondering how much that coach wants to make it out.  He's - rightfully - going to get crucified.

Just released that he’s written an “i’m sorry” letter to all of the parents 

 

Also, CBS is reporting their oxygen is running out due to all of the helpers trying to get them out. 

 

They might try a rescue this weekend because of the oxygen issue and a possible storm coming through

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hookem2010

hookem2010 2625

Posted
Posted

I am a very experienced swimmer with some scuba experience. I scuba'd off of Vancouver island in a kelp forest with sea lions and my primary regulator failed. I was unsuccessful in reaching my dive buddy and shot to the surface rather than calmly reaching for my secondary. I like to think I responded so poorly due to knowing I was less than 30 ft from the surface. Clearly I'm not a great scuba diver, but neither are these kids. Imagining being 12 years old and cave diving to escape entrapment as my first time is absolutely terrifying. There's obviously not a great answer to this situation, and swimming out may save a good number, but if that's the route they go I can see it not going great.
As far as getting upset at them for getting stuck in the first place, I still have plenty of sympathy for a 12 or 13-year old doing something idiotic. It is incredibly unfortunate that a rescuer died trying to help but these aren't a pack of 20-something tourist bros who fucked themselves

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

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heso

heso 2816

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, MadBurgerMaker said:

This is a four hour dive each way?  Or four hours total?  Either way: holy shit 

Each way. It’s an hour longer in one direction than the other because you have to swim against the current. 

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CoTex

CoTex 1162

Posted
Posted

I’m under the impression that somewhere in the 4 hours they get some surface intervals and breaks.

 

can anyone confirm?  If so, maybe they don’t have to change tanks/regs under water?

my dad’s girlfriend was my dive buddy for my checkout dives when I got certified in canyon lake.  She wasn’t worth a fuck and surfaced from 40 feet like a Polaris missile because “I can’t get my ears equalized.”  Divemaster didn’t complain because ... tits.

if a 30 year old nurse, who probably understands the science and risks, can’t figure it out, a 12 yo is going to need some luck.  Keep the reg in your mouth kid, breathe slowly and keep moving/don’t quit.

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Deej

Deej 76944

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, naija said:

I'm trying to imagine being 12 years old and trying to be the voice of reason and logic talking a group of my friends out of doing some adventurous.

Yeah, not working

Maybe their adult coach should have been the voice of reason?

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Buzzrock

Buzzrock 14947

Posted
Posted
I guess we don’t know their condition either - these kids are cold and tired.  Not the best condition for extreme focus for 4 hours.


The articles I’ve read say they’re in pretty good shape. They’ve had water and been brought food, oxygen levels are good for now. Kids are pretty resilient. I think that’s why one of the plans on the table was wait the rainy season out (for months if needed). But now the water may rise so they gotta move.
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phdhorn

phdhorn 6224

Posted
Posted (edited)

I've been reading though that food, water, and air is declining for them.  Food because they can't get enough of it though the small openings for the time they can dive to sustain them; same with water (they can't really drink the flood waters because they're apparently not clean enough), and air keeps getting lower - they're almost halfway to the equivalent amount of oxygen (by volume) that a climber consumes at the 26,000+ "Death Zone" (about 9% of what the body needs), going from about 23% at sea level to about 16% now.  (Actually, the % of 02 @ all altitudes is the same in the air - about 23% - but the volume amount goes down because the air gets so thin, so in real volume, "Death Zone" climbers only get about 7%-8% of normal 02).  But the effect on the body apparently is the same if you also take out the % of 02 in the air.  The body needs the equivalent of 23% @ sea level (less, as low as 17% for experienced climbers and people used to living at high altitudes, say oveer 9,000 feet).  These are sea level kids, so they're already feeling the effects of the depleted 02... it takes about 6 weeks to adjust to that, but if the levels keep going down... and even if they hold steady, it's going to have an effect on their younger metablolisms... 

Then you have this little gem:

Quote

On Thursday, overzealous volunteers working on their own arrived on the site and began pumping water into the ground, forcing it back into the partially flooded Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex.

"They may have some belief that their techniques are effective for groundwater drainage, but anything that is not in the plan must be discussed with us first," Narongsak told Thai media. "We are racing against water (that is) flowing into the cave although we have plugged its channels."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/07/06/thailand-cave-rescue-sense-urgency-growing-ex-thai-navy-seal-dead/762293002/

Man this is not looking good - at all.

Edited by phdhorn
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KaiserSoze

KaiserSoze 998

Posted
Posted

From the latest article on cnn...

To reach them, expert divers must carefully traverse jagged passageways, occasionally narrowing to the width of a person, forcing divers to remove their breathing tanks from their backs and enter like a pencil, taking extra care not to snag their wetsuit. The tunnels are pitch black. The water is muddy and cold.

The whole journey can take up to six hours.

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Pancho

Pancho 45059

Posted
Posted

Sounds like they are getting close to making a decision

Quote
There are no easy decisions. But with the flood waters expected to rise in the coming days, a decision will have to be made soon.https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/07/asia/thai-cave-spirits-intl/index.html
"The teams there will have a tipping point where they have to make that call to bring them out. To leave them there would almost certainly result in them drowning," said one British mining engineer and experienced cave diver, who did not wish to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject.
 
"The tipping point will be related to how much rain is starting to fall, water levels inside, versus how the boys are doing. They'll be looking at flow rates, recorded rain fall over the past weeks, months to get a rough indicator of where they're at, they'll have a deadline in mind, and then they'll go for the most unpopular way out," he added

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/07/asia/thai-cave-spirits-intl/index.html

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phdhorn

phdhorn 6224

Posted
Posted

One thing I haven't seen anything on, simply, how the fuck did they get so far into the caves?

If the way out is extremely dangerous and difficult, with 2-foot openings and long stretches underwater with no visibility that even the most experienced cave scuba'ers can navigate with any degree of success, how do 12 people just breeze right into it (or even if panicked with approaching waters, all go through the same Chinese finger cuff sections)?  

I haven't seen anything on this.  I mean, was it as difficult (which apparently is monstrously so) to get in as to get out?  Was there almost no water in places that it's all over the place now?

This is the part I don't understand.  How the fuck did they get so far in there, navigating an apparently infinitely difficult passage?

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bluto

bluto 4943

Posted
Posted
23 minutes ago, phdhorn said:

One thing I haven't seen anything on, simply, how the fuck did they get so far into the caves?

If the way out is extremely dangerous and difficult, with 2-foot openings and long stretches underwater with no visibility that even the most experienced cave scuba'ers can navigate with any degree of success, how do 12 people just breeze right into it (or even if panicked with approaching waters, all go through the same Chinese finger cuff sections)?  

I haven't seen anything on this.  I mean, was it as difficult (which apparently is monstrously so) to get in as to get out?  Was there almost no water in places that it's all over the place now?

This is the part I don't understand.  How the fuck did they get so far in there, navigating an apparently infinitely difficult passage?

I believe the issue is a major downpour hit, maybe the first burst of their rainy season, and maybe chased them deeper (about 50% talking out of my ass)

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Pancho

Pancho 45059

Posted
Posted

Sounds like they knew the caves and could handle going in further (giggity), but it started tor rain and they got stuck. 

Quote

It was Saturday, June 23. The team of 12 boys — who were all between the ages of 11 and 16 and nicknamed the Wild Boars — had just finished a weekly soccer practice and went to explore the cave with their coach. According to the Wall Street Journal, they had been inside the cave before; this time, they wanted to go further in to write their names on the wall as part of an initiation.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/7/5/17532464/thai-soccer-team-cave-rescue-diving-monsoon

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phdhorn

phdhorn 6224

Posted
Posted (edited)

Well I guess so, but either that means that: 1) even if the passages were dry at the time, they'd have to squeeze through some really tight spots, like barely wide enough for the kids, never mind an adult; or 2) they somehow walked rather easily through passages that they now either can't get to, or wouldn't be able to find.

I'm kind of getting that they squeezed through all of those dangerous tight areas (without lights?), even if the water wasn't to the present levels... 

I guess it sort of worked, as they're still alive, but if I were so fucking stupid as to lead 11 boys into a death chamber despite all of the well-known mega red alerts not to go into that thing at this time of year, I'd takes my chances with trying to get out the way I got in.  Easy to armchair from out here i know, but I guess I'd rather die rather quickly from drowning than waste away slowly.  I mean, I don't get 1) why, which I get like maybe 30% I guess I do (nowhere else to go), so even more, 2) how they went so far into that thing.

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Caver60

Caver60 396

Posted
Posted

If you had to draw up a recipe for a caving disaster, this is obviously it.

Those boys are perfect for pushing further into a cave. Thin, athletic, young, brave, and most assuredly encouraging each other to go further with the usual comparisons to female sexual anatomy for anyone who might have been hesitant.

Slipping through passages too narrow for scuba gear is absolutely nothing in caves. If any of them has any caving experience or knows anyone who does, they will have heard stories about passageways so narrow that a caver will have to exhale, scoot through while their chest is compressed, and breathe again on the other side. Standard fare for caver stories around a campfire, and something you can do in any number of caves right here in Texas.

The coach is right to send apologies. If anyone could have prevented this, it was him.

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wild_turkey

wild_turkey 3184

Posted
Posted
He is still pretty young as well. Lots of most of us were still doing stupid stuff in our twenties even though we were old enough to know better.


I did a lot of stupid stuff in my 20s but I would like to think I wouldn’t have done that when I was the only adult responsible for the well being of 11-16 year old kids.
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Parliament

Parliament 14334

Posted
Posted



If any of them has any caving experience or knows anyone who does, they will have heard stories about passageways so narrow that a caver will have to exhale, scoot through while their chest is compressed, and breathe again on the other side.


I'm out.


The other boys that chose not to go in knew...


...knew they'd look like rocket scientists 12 hours later.
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Buzzrock

Buzzrock 14947

Posted
Posted
Those passageways were dry when they went in, rising water due to rains forced them to go farther in to get away from it. Sounds like a nightmare fuel decision...risk drowning going back the way you came, or getting stuck farther in.


Imma want a Cousteau/Cameron style documentary of these caves after the successful rescue.
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