Thai soccer team planned to be inside the cave for only an hour

[webfact]

Thai soccer team planned to be inside the cave for only an hour

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Panarat Thepgumpanat

 

Rescue personnel work at the Tham Luang cave complex in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand July, 2018 in this still image taken from a video obtained from social media. THAI NAVY SEAL/via REUTERS

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Twelve boys and their soccer coach rescued from a flooded cave in Thailandplanned to explore the cavern complex for only about an hour before treacherous flood waters rose to trap them for more than two weeks, one of the boys' fathers said.

 

All 12 of the boys and their 25-year-old coach were brought to safety over the course of a three-day rescue, organised by Thai navy SEALs and an international team of diving and caving experts, that ended on Tuesday.

 

They had gone into the Tham Luang cave in the northern province of Chiang Rai on June 23, for a quick excursion after soccer practice, when a rainy season downpour flooded the tunnels.

 

"He told me that as soon as they finished practice they went to play at the cave. They thought they'd only be an hour," Banpot Korncam, father of the 13-year-old captain of the "Wild Boars" team, told media.

 

"While they were inside the cave it rained, water flowed in and everyone took off," Banpot said.

 

Two British divers found the boys on July 2, squatting on a muddy mound in a flooded chamber several kiometres inside the complex, nine days after they went for their quick jaunt.

 

Then the problem became how to get them back out through the tunnels, some completely full of fast-flowing flood water.

 

The boys, aged 11 to 16, had to dive for part of their journey out before they were put on green plastic toboggan-like stretchers and carried, at times through steep, rocky tunnels, with ropes strung overhead.

 

Many people in Thailand have credited the coach, Ekkapol Chantawong, or Ek as he is known, for keeping the boys safe during the ordeal.

 

"They just sat quietly without doing anything because it was dark," said Banpot, recounting what his son, who is still in hospital, had told him.

 

"When they were hungry Coach Ek would use a flashlight to shine on the stalactites above," he said.

 

'CALCULATING, CALM'

The group survived by drinking water that dripped off the stalactites and the cave walls, rescue officials said.

 

Initially isolated in hospital in Chiang Rai because of fears of infection, the boys have now been allowed to meet their families. They will stay in hospital at least a week.

 

"The boys' health is improving ... relatives can now visit them in close proximity," said Thongchai Lertwilairatanapong, a health ministry inspector.

 

The rescue gripped the world, with much praise focusing on the navy SEALs and international team of divers who helped them, toiling for days in dangerous conditions to get the boys out. A former Thai navy SEAL diver died during the mission.

 

John Volanthen, one of the two British divers who found the boys, played down the gallantry.

 

"We're not heroes," he told the BBC after arriving back in London.

 

"What we do is very calculating. It's very calm, it's quite the opposite ... But it's really the international team I would like to focus on and the Thai SEALs."

 

Volanthen was the first person the boys heard after nine days trapped in the flooded cave. A video posted by the Thai SEALs captured the moment.

 

"How many of you?" he asked, a torch beam scanning the boys crowded on the bank.

 

"Thirteen? Brilliant."

 

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said on Thursday international members of the rescue team would be given a "Thailand Elite" card worth 500,000 baht ($15,000) with benefits including a 5-year visa in thanks.

 

(Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-07-13

[rooster59]

Team’s one-hour trip turned into life-threatening ordeal

By MARISA CHIMPRABHA 
THE NATION WEEKEND

 

 

The planned hour-long visit to the Tham Luang cave by a football team on June 23 turned into an 18-day ordeal that fixated the country and the world and triggered a daring multinational rescue operation.

 

Chanin Wibulrungrueng, one of the 13 Mu Pa Academy football club members who were trapped inside the cave, told his mother, Aikan, that the team wanted to go inside the cave after football practice. Their assistant coach, Ekkapon Chantawong, 25, joined the trip.

 

Titan

 

“My son had an extra tutorial class that day after practice. He told me when I visited him in the hospital that he planned to go into the cave for just an hour and go home,” Aikan said.

Chanin, nicknamed Titan, is the youngest of the 13 Mu Pa (Wild Boar) team members who were trapped inside the cave after a flash flood hit the area and the cave, blocking their exit. 

 

Their disappearance triggered a massive rescue operation that was joined by multinational task forces and tonnes of equipment set up to locate them.

 

Two British cave divers discovered them 10 days into the search, on Noen Nom Sao ledge, about three kilometres from the cave entrance. 

 

Chanin was speaking to his mother through a glass partition at Chiangrai Prachanukroh Hospital where the group was undergoing a medical check-up. “While we were in the cave, there was heavy rain that resulted in fast and heavy flow of water,” he told his mother.

 

“Coach Ek [Ekkapon] told the boys to build a wall to block the water but to no avail because the water ran very strong and fast. This forced us to retreat deeper into the cave,” Chanin was quoted as saying.

 

In a separate interview with Thai media, another rescued boy, Duangpetch or Dom Promthep, 13, echoed Chanin’s account, saying that he joined the others on the trip because it was to be a short visit.

 

Dome

 

He brought a small amount of snacks on the trip. “When they got stuck inside the cave, they had nothing to eat,” he told his father, Banphot, 45, who visited him at the hospital.

 

His statement contradicted an earlier report that the group planned a small birthday party for one of the boys, so they brought food and snacks. Those reports comforted people outside the cave who believed that they had something to eat during the ordeal.

 

He told his father that on the day they got trapped, everyone panicked but Coach Ek calmed them down and tried to find a way out. 

 

Duangpetch said that Ekkapon told the boys not to move and to stay still so that they would save their energy. “If we were thirsty, Coach Ek told us to use a flashlight to find a hole where rainwater seeped in. So, we drank that water to survive. We did not know the days and nights because it was very dark inside the cave,” he said.

 

Chanin told his mother that on the first three nights, he was so hungry that he burst into tears. He only consumed rainwater that seeped into the cave through the roof of the cave. “It was really cold inside the cave. He told Ekkapon that, so he hugged my boy until he slept,” according to Aikan.

 

It was difficult for the team to sleep on the ledge where they were stranded as it was so small, she said.

 

Chanin also said that Ekkapon told them not to move a lot to save their energy and meditate to stay calm and not panic.

 

Duangpetch, the captain of the football team, said that the group was staying on higher ground when the British divers discovered them. They ran down to ask for help when they saw the divers. The discovery was recorded by the divers’ helmet camera, footage that brought joy to their parents and a worldwide audience.

 

Banphot said his son lost about three to four kilograms during the ordeal and he asked for pork barbecue, Thai-styled noodle soup and a new phone to replace the old one he lost in the cave.

 

Aikan said she prepared sticky rice and grilled pork which are her son’s favourite food when he leaves the hospital.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30350045

 

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-07-14

[Get Real]

I guess it´s time for the media and all the other profiteers to lay off this witch hunt for both money and the poor boys now. Let them recover, go back to their families and return to their normal quite happy life they had before everything happened.

Naturally this rescue and the media coverage after has opened up a can of worms, regarding all from safety and stateless people to dismissing good people in governor posotions. That´s just a small portion of all the problems that has to be addressed.

However, that can be done without including the boys in every thing they do and every sentence, for and unforseen future. Let them have their life back, get back to normal life! That, my friends, media, profiteers and authorities up to the government is the greatest gift we can ever give them.

[evadgib]

a 'full Monty' from the beeb:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44791998

[lamyai3]

1 hour ago, rooster59 said:

He told his father that on the day they got trapped, everyone panicked but Coach Ek calmed them down and tried to find a way out. 

 

Duangpetch said that Ekkapon told the boys not to move and to stay still so that they would save their energy. “If we were thirsty, Coach Ek told us to use a flashlight to find a hole where rainwater seeped in. So, we drank that water to survive. We did not know the days and nights because it was very dark inside the cave,” he said.

 

Chanin told his mother that on the first three nights, he was so hungry that he burst into tears. He only consumed rainwater that seeped into the cave through the roof of the cave. “It was really cold inside the cave. He told Ekkapon that, so he hugged my boy until he slept,” according to Aikan.

Great testimony. Hard to believe some people are seeking to denigrate the man.

[TEFLKrabi]

I’m thinking how terrifying it must have been once they realised they couldn’t get out on the first day and they had to squeeze through that very narrow passage and move further inside, just to survive. 

[Jonmarleesco]

23 hours ago, webfact said:

Thai soccer team planned to be inside the cave for only an hour

They're Thai. It's highly doubtful that they planned anything.

[Stargeezr]

Sort of like the Minnow in Guilligan's Island.  Two hour tour.

[djayz]

The longest hour of their lives!