“I said that it could never occur,” I expressed. Except if there is a possibility to rescue 12 youngsters and their football coach who became trapped three kilometers deep inside a submerged cave in northern Thailand during the beginning of the wet season, lacking any confirmed provisions, water, or ability to swim, one can never be certain.
He nodded. “You never can tell.”
He was calm too, as I turned around and looked back at my rescuer. We found our seats behind him and climbed the rickety boarding ramp.
A break. “Not living ones,” he stated.
When the plane landed and we were standing in the aisle, I inquired about the question that had intrigued the world for several days. The aircraft departed.
“Do you not believe it could potentially be more advantageous to simply wait for the rain to stop and deliver provisions?”
He was silent but resolute. “I believe it’s preferable to give it a shot.”
“Men are truly going to expel them.”
“That is the strategy.”
We gazed into each other’s eyes, his gaze gentle and his shirt a pale shade of blue. In that afternoon, those were the only details that caught my attention. Everything else faded into darkness, disappearing from sight and becoming out of reach. A lifeline drifted away, lost among the shadows. A skull shattered against solid rock. A needle pierced through a thigh. Wrists were bound tightly by a strap. A cable wrapped around a neck. Fingernails dug into human skin and rock walls. Paralyzing water flowed through the lifeless bodies of children. The events of the next few days remained a mystery to me, still unknown and unclear. Perhaps I would have felt more concern. Perhaps my worries wouldn’t have been as intense if I had known his true identity. And in that moment, we locked eyes, silently acknowledging each other’s presence.
We disembarked from the boat, leisurely walked through the entrance, and traversed a line of transparent windows. He raised his hand to signal me to stop.
“My flightmate responded to his own inquiry. They were honoring a casket. On the runway, lines of armed forces personnel stood upright, visible through the window. “What is the reason behind this?” They have arrived for the deceased scuba diver.”
I thought to myself, “Who is this man?” He hadn’t done anything like this before, probably. I wondered how it had happened. The former Royal Thai Navy SEAL had just died in the cave.
“Next, he expressed that this was not a satisfactory method for him to reach the destination, and it was not directed towards me as we approached the escalator.”
“Best of luck,” I exclaimed as we reached the base.
“You keep yourself safe.” He winked and was gone.Output: “You ensure your own safety.” He winked and disappeared.
Sometimes, explorers who dive into caves are always searching for something new, like the limit of their psychological endurance or the elusive pirate ship. Perhaps they will find Ben, who is known to reside at the top of one of the caves. However, he is not easily reached, as he is considered one of the top 10 cave divers in the world. Despite his success as a dive shop owner in Phuket, Thailand, Ben is also worshipped by certain sects of divers. He is famous for his encounters with exotic and rare sea worm species, as well as his record-breaking dives into the depths. On top of all that, Ben is known for his handsome, dark, and tall appearance, hailing from Belgium.
Ben knows only this particular moment, he can’t breathe properly. Eventually, he will discover something else that he can be replaced with. Today, he is looking for a soccer team that entered Tham Luang cave a few days ago.
Instead of retreating to the long, rocky, dry patch of land at Pattaya Beach, the boys wanted to find where they might be able to reach the chamber of air in the flooded floodwaters. Instead of rushing to the caves where the rapids could rip off their masks and split them in two, the SEALs pressed on to Monk’s Junction, where they squeezed their way through narrow corridors that only skinnier divers could get through. Then, as they entered the first chamber of the cave, the SEALs were dwarfed by the exploding boulders from the cave floor and the plunging stalactites from the ceiling. Most of the cave was flooded, with the waterline above some of the rooms. Luang Tham is several kilometers of cavernous rooms with soaring ceilings and pinhole passageways leading to more cavernous rooms. The Thai Navy SEALs entered the cave mouth and found the bikes left by the park rangers. Every rocky crevice was potentially a death trap, with rainwater racing down the mountain and possibly drowning them. He never walked out and instead walked into the coach, assistant team’s, and players’ exploration because he got stuck between the low ceiling of the flooded cave and the crushing floor.
The experts were required. They had reached their limit on their own, but SEALs could not escape with the outdated single air cylinder mounted on their back in a narrow sump, only in a vast ocean. The confined sumps – submerged underwater tunnels – were extremely dangerous, not just challenging. The diver’s headlamps, tiny dots of light in the oppressive darkness of the cave, could hardly pierce through the water filled with mud. Visibility was also unattainable. The cave’s currents were insurmountable.
There were various kinds of other things that each of them knew really well. Brits and Europeans would join them more. In the coming days, they were already closely working with Governor Rai Chiang. When he first entered, he learned that there were two Britons, John Volanthen, an IT consultant, and Rick Stanton, a firefighter, who were kind of the top rescuers in the world, whether dead or alive. Ben had called a volunteer SEAL as the liaison to the cave.
The boys had different concerns to be concerned about, but it had never been established whether they had secretly entered the cave to capture pictures or were accidentally left behind due to some administrative mistake during the cave rescue operation. Rick and John rescued them when Ben found the British people at the cave. They had also made a finding: four males on a bank approximately 800 m away from the cave opening, confined by three water-filled sections.
Ben, the scuba diver, found himself trapped in a tight passage, unsure of how to escape. Despite the strong current, he bravely dived back into the water. This time, he was determined to make it farther and not let God down.
The monsoon rainfall will come earlier in the fall. Ben is unable to tell his experience in this cave because there is no amount of experience to be had in this cave. Finally, he is free. He takes a breath and moves back an inch. Then he takes another breath and moves back another inch. He can flatten his body enough to move backwards inch by inch, only emptying his lungs. Skill is pointless. Strength is pointless.
Suicide mission. The SEALs are searching for their equipment to retrieve it from the cave tomorrow morning, back to Ben.
He informs the Thai representative, “I am willing to accompany them and trust that they become sufficiently frightened to change their minds.” “I cannot allow these individuals to enter independently.”
The rear admiral of the SEALs is far ahead of him. Being a shorter individual, he ascends onto a chair situated outside the cave. He instructs the SEALs to form a line, and he also includes Ben in his statement.
The admiral ties one of Ben’s wrists around. The monk blessed and made bracelets for the SEALs. The boys will be found alive, thus fulfilling the prediction made by a Thai monk that the boys would be found alive.
Although it may seem like Ben wishes to pretend to be someone else, it is important to double-check. I require food for the men, and I also need more air tanks. He mentions that a very specific and hard-to-find type of rope is necessary. Additionally, I need more of that rope. He attempts to buy time for the Thais to change their minds. However, Ben does not believe that prayers will save them.
Ben embraces his defeat. “I possess all the playthings and no longer have any justifications,” he contemplates. Into the cavern he ventures.
These individuals require a crucial means of support. They can clutch onto and trail the synthetic rope through the perilous corridors in the darkness of a profound, mucky cavern, where divers may as effectively be visually impaired. It serves as a vital source of support as well. In the realm of cave diving, the rope can serve as a marker on the terrain, indicating to divers which fellow diver reached a certain point before them. He discovers individuals who are responsible for laying down the rope. He brings along a group of 20 SEALs.
Further, he laid it. He thinks the SEALs lost the line. He comes up when. He’s gone for a while. Ben goes under.
At the Chiang Rai airport, I’ll observe officers giving salutes on the runway. It is the casket of Ben that will reveal the name of the diver, Saman Gunan, in a newspaper over a week later. Ben placed the rope, a shout from a diver from Thailand, he hears.
Ben replaces the man who knows that they’re nearing bodies in an attempt to rescue the most people who now believe they must be dead. He lays the line to split the days several. Finally, Ben makes it to Monk’s Junction. This time, a European nearly has a full tank of air pulled out by Ben’s ankles. Ben gets stuck again. More Europeans, having heard that the cave divers need to go in where the line just past Monk’s Junction, split the cave right and left.
Every explorer wants to be in the front line. Divers cave may understand this more than most. He also thinks that Thais and some Brits understand. The SEALs want to find people’s children. He also thinks that before they discover them, they will turn back. John, Rick, and Ben think that the Brits will lay the line where the kids are close. The Brits are going in. He heads back.
“Thirteen? Excellent!” The video appears to be of low quality, with a British voice calling out these words, but it is not a Thai voice. The day that Ben leaves the cave, after which the plan is to not make any contact, there is no one who cares.
They might be needed. Ben tells him to put it down. A Ukrainian raises a glass of vodka to the discovery. The boys are alive when they hear Europeans in their hotel.
The Brits don’t want to talk to Ben about the kids getting into fights with them. The boys coming alive is a different thing; however, the Brits had assured the boys that coming alive is a different thing. The Brits congratulate them and are back at the site.
Why won’t you be part of the team, Ben shouts? Maybe the Brits are the team, though. Maybe Ben doesn’t fit. The Thai liaison pulls Ben away. This isn’t the right time, he says.
Remain for a while. Accompany various European individuals. He is unable to provide assistance to that team, as he cannot. He boards a flight out of Rai Chiang the following morning. He is aware that he is in need of a break. He acknowledges it. Ben agrees.
Karadzic Ivan and Erik Brown, his fellow divers, are waiting in their wetsuits, ready to take a seat. Now he is delivering clear orders to the guards at the checkpoint, as he sees them. He has seen a lot inside the caves, including drug addicts, homeless people, and refugees, with whom he has worked in his previous lives. He thinks he is an ancient instructor in terms of diving. Claus Rasmussen, a Dane who has lived in Thailand for 15 years and works at Ben’s dive shop in Phuket, is his colleague. There is more shouting outside the cave, and it will continue for a couple of days.
They wait patiently, disregarding the instructions to wait, as they immediately purchase plane tickets to travel to the cave. Neither of the men earns a fortune by teaching tourists how to dive, but Erik is concerned about potentially becoming another individual in Thailand who refuses to grow up, commonly known as having a Peter Pan complex. Despite only having spent a few years on Koh Tao, Erik is already plagued by worries. Departing from Vancouver, he will be the sole Canadian participant in the mission, yet he will be considered a member of Team Europe, which essentially means Team-Europe-Plus-One-Canadian. Ivan, who possesses a sturdy build, long hair, and a serious demeanor, regards cave divers as a clandestine society, seeking recognition from their own kind without concerning themselves with those who are ignorant about the intricacies of cave diving. Several decades ago, Ivan visited Thailand for a vacation and never returned home. Erik, a surfer with lengthy hair, was compelled to retire from his beloved sport due to a shoulder injury, thus he cannot be classified as a stereotypical hippie. On the other hand, Ivan, a Danish individual with a crew cut, does possess some hippie-like qualities. Erik and Ivan manage dive shops that are situated a few bars away from each other on Koh Tao, an island renowned for its two primary tourist activities: diving and indulging in alcohol.
One is slightly less than satisfactory. All of the options are not good. He meets with representatives of the Special American Forces and the British team to discuss rescue efforts. He just needs to persuade the British people. He knows that his fellow Europeans can assist in the rescue mission and he knows Claus.
Somehow, rescue the team. Somehow, locate the chimney on the mountain peak that leads to the children and their coach. Let’s assume that there is indeed a chimney on the mountaintop that leads to the children and their coach. Trust the children’s assertions that they heard roosters crowing, option one.
Second option: Imagine there is no chimney. Create one. Drill through the rock–700 m. Extract the team out–700 m.
Take the team back using the same route they used to enter. This should be done for a duration of four months. Wait until the rain ceases. Provide food, letters, and medical assistance. This should also be done for a duration of four months. In the absence of light. Abandon the children and their coach inside the cave. This is the third option available.
Intense currents and extremely limited visibility in a few kilometers of submerged cavern, where a group of twelve children and one adult, none of whom have any diving or perhaps even swimming skills, accomplish something unprecedented: they choose option four.
Madness is the fourth choice. Nothing like it has ever been attempted before. Divers may lose their lives. Those who survive may be burdened with the task of carrying out twelve deceased children. Torture is the third option. The children didn’t last more than a few days before attempting to escape by scratching the rock surface with their bare hands; enduring four months would be unbearable. They were trapped in that small area of soil in darkness, relying on water dripping from stalactites to survive. Option two is deadly. Drilling could result in the children being crushed by falling rocks. Option one is unrealistic. It is likely that the children are hallucinating about the roosters.
The Canadian cave is one of the team’s locations, along with various European caves. The British divers will be chosen to provide support for the team. They are interested in diving with the young ones. Tonight, the men will decide on their adventurous plan.
Chris Jewell, a British diver, asks Rick if he’s sure he wants to meet the boys. He knows many children will soon know they want to see dead men. Chris is another original Brit.
Chris, a computer programmer from England, is sure that most men can control their breathing but cannot control their heartbeat. However, he knows that if you say “It’s curtains,” it will cause panic. Chris is not afraid of diving in caves because most men cannot do it, but he likes to avoid tight spaces and steep climbs. He feels more comfortable in England than anywhere else.
Chris thought to himself, “I suppose I’ll be meeting the children.” Jason, who is already walking up the bank, makes the decision for both of them when he surfaces a few meters away from Chris with another British teammate, Mallinson. Jason dives in to provide backup for their run. He is not entirely certain about meeting the boys.
The children stand at the edge of the water’s back and skip down to the mountain like little goats. The rescuers swooped in from around the world, barely able to stand as the world spun around them. The boys are making fools of the men, he notes. Chris, fit and strong, quick, can’t climb the muddy bank without falling and slipping.
They’re so vibrant.
The Thais hold significance for him, but he lacks a precise understanding of the act of praying to her. He is unaware of the meaning behind praying to her, yet he acknowledges its importance to the Thais. Safeguarding the children within her hidden chambers, the contours of her reclining form extend over the smooth mountaintops. Referred to as such in this area, he refrains from entering without seeking permission from the Lady of the Cave. Caves hold sacred value in Thailand, Claus lowers his head in reverence before a shrine situated outside the cave.
Upon his arrival, one will feel a strong aversion. Presently, Thai officials have granted the Europeans authorization to access the entrance of the cavern.
Alright, he’s inquiring. Claus forms the “alright” sign with his thumb and forefinger, and the German acknowledges. Claus indicates one direction, then another, inquiring about the preferred route. The German indicates the opposite direction. Claus indicates again, with increased urgency. The German declines, indicating once more. Claus seizes the German’s arm and points towards the desired direction. The German agrees, and they commence swimming.
He left. It was discarded casually by him and he attempted to enter a cave; he has loved ones; he has encountered a problem with a bug; he is shaken: the German is fine, yes.
Prior to this, perhaps he had never engaged in such an activity previously. Maybe he became overwhelmed with fear. Maybe his supply of oxygen depleted. The individual who will perish later that day, while placing additional tanks, is Saman, the Thai diver who used to be a SEAL. It takes several hours to navigate through the cave. A single tank cannot sustain for more than an hour; each tank has a weight of 35 pounds. This work is both demanding and crucial. They inform him about the distance at which they have positioned air tanks and engage in conversation with a Thai diver who speaks English, while being in an air pocket. They encounter a Thai team entering the cave as they make their way out. Gaining a better understanding of the cave, Claus, Ivan, Erik, and Ivan’s business partner from Koh Tao, Mikko Paasi from Finland, forge ahead while the German diver retreats.
Inside the cavern, the European underwater explorers contemplate whether they will soon accomplish a comparable undertaking. They experience a sense of unease for their companions, the divers hailing from various parts of Thailand, who are descending to the sunken vessel to retrieve bodies from the water. Over 40 individuals have tragically perished as a result of a tourist boat sinking off the shores of Phuket. The demise of Saman is not the sole horrifying incident in Thailand.
There is one individual who cannot be substituted; and others to take the place of the individuals who will become ill or resign or pass away; some to provide assistance to the individuals who are present; the mission requires additional individuals.
In this world, only Harry possesses these qualities of being nice, funny, and humble. Even people who have never met him would love him. Harry, who is an anaesthesiologist specializing in keeping people comfortable and safe in critical situations such as underwater retrievals and subterranean surgery, has met Dr. Koh on Tao. They have been to the cave together and Harry would have loved to met Dr. Koh there. In 2012, Harry made a record-breaking descent into the coldest cave-water in the world. First, Harry wants everyone to know that he is planning to travel from his home in Adelaide to the cave for a diving holiday. In addition, he is calling for wider support from the Australian and British communities.
He knows that he is waiting. He sits and waits. He pulls up a chair outside. The team might need him to be another man. But the mission might need him to be a different man. For now, Ben shouldn’t enter the cave. One overzealous police officer, handcuffed in a diver’s photo, looks bad. They also understand that it doesn’t matter if it’s fake. The liaison and Ben think that the posters are fake because whoever pulled Ben’s photos didn’t create an official-looking document. Someone has been handing out posters claiming that the governor has banned Ben from the cave. When Ben lands at Chiang Rai airport for the second time, the liaison says, “We have a problem.” Thai SEALs working with the liaison called Ben back to the cave.
Many others are not familiar with his name, but each member of the British rescue team knows him well. He currently works as an electrician in a factory, but he used to work as a dive instructor in dive shops. He first started diving in caves, but he has now explored more of them. Although he was born in Belgium, he currently resides in Ireland. This man, named Jim, lives in a small village in Ireland and is known for his elfin appearance.
He wanted to help other men and needed his friend to help him. Jim couldn’t bear to recover the lifeless body he discovered drifting in the water. Jason, John, and Rick answered. He called the British Cave Rescue Council on the second day. Jim found nothing on the first day. Seven years ago, when his friend Artur Kozlowski disappeared during a dive, he came to know the Brits better.
Jim dispatches a Facebook message to the British individuals. He contemplates the compact team and the gentlemen who assisted him in rescuing his comrade. However, he also ponders the extensive cavern and the youngsters marooned at its rear. He firmly believes that it is preferable to keep the boys inside until the entirety of the surroundings become dry. As Saman’s body is being retrieved from the cave, Jim reflects on the presence of the British individuals on the scene.
“I’m available if you require my assistance.”
Chris has been told to pack his bags. Jim is on the phone with his boss, trying to get time off from the factory. She comes down at the right time. She asks, “Why would you need them?” She already thinks that they are the best divers in the world. Jim asks her what she thinks of his fiancée at home.
When I discovered the cave site, it was being crowded in the media area by a diver, which, to some rescuers’ immense regret (though possibly not to others’), was the sole path to the restrooms. The muddy enclosure, where numerous cameras were gathered, was politely referred to as the “media area.” An Australian TV reporter kindly pointed out a blue tent filled with donated rain boots and plastic ponchos, expressing pity for me. However, I was concerned about the foreign volunteer I had met on the plane, fearing he might sustain injuries inside the cave. No one was able to indicate his whereabouts to me. Moreover, on that particular day, people were preoccupied with more pressing questions. In letters written by the boys’ parents, delivered to them by divers, they mentioned praying for the team’s assistant coach—the man who permitted them to enter the cave.
The locals said that after the monk Luang Tham got stuck teaching the children, they would slip inside the mouth of this cave to meditate. Occasionally, the monk would take some of the boys to a nearby temple, which stands on the edge of a temple where a much smaller Luang Tham cave is located. When I asked why people weren’t angry with the coach who corrected me, the former monk, she asked me why I found her next-door neighbor grilling chicken outside her corrugated tin bungalow-walled in the neighborhood. It didn’t make sense when I left the mud pit in the coach’s wandered sense.
The young boys, aged 12, were being instructed by the monk who had a job to do. The monk offered his thanks to the parents, while men pumped water out furiously and carried lights and air tanks, without seeking forgiveness.
The plan is to lead all British divers onward. Most divers will support European divers. These divers will wait to offer assistance to each child bringing a diver buddy. The terrain will be traversed with four manned diving stations, each equipped with oxygen and air tanks in air chambers. The divers will guide each child through the mostly dry pumped cave, delivering them to the medical support teams at Central-Grand Station. They will lead each child through two kilometers of treacherous boulders and watery passageways, with four 45-minute intervals. The kids won’t be confined to airtight metal coffins or crawl through a long inflatable bouncy castle tube as proposed by Elon Musk. Several options have been considered and politely dismissed. Everything is ready before the day of the rescue.
Moving forward. However, it may not be sufficient to use small masks for this purpose. There are no full-face masks available for children. It is risky for a child to wear a mask that is too large, as it could lead to drowning if the mask gets flooded and water seeps in. Full-face masks need to be tightly sealed to prevent this from happening. In order to make it more difficult for water to seep in, full-face masks use pressure to push air out. Divers use a regulator mouthpiece to breathe with these masks, unlike the more commonly used half-masks. To test the effectiveness of the smallest full-face masks from different sources around the world, divers practice submerging the boys face-down in water to check for any leaks. Meanwhile, young boys selected from a local school tremble in a nearby pool. The training begins with drills in the pool.
Is this the only time divers see anything approximating light in the cave? Are there more lights here and fewer lights there? Do we need more tanks here and fewer tanks there? The team soccer, who has been stranded for two weeks, has placed thirteen red bottles near the marking stick, which signifies that they have been in this station for six weeks. On the third day, plus five days, with three rescues each day, the team will extract four prisoners alive or dead from the cave. The “plan” is enacted to drill a rock in order to make it easier to revive someone who has been breathing pure oxygen. If something goes wrong, the divers will use green tanks for oxygen, blue tanks for air, and red bottles for the coach and children, which are wrapped in tape of different colors to signify different people. The divers will follow the main guide line to find their way out of the cave, which is marked by half-liter plastic water bottles. The divers will walk through a miniature mock cave-up in a parking lot, drawing lines in the sand with branches and rocks, just like a special forces team. Next, they will drill the rock.
To the anesthesia procedure.
