# Missing Soccer Team Found Alive in Cave **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 2, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173 "2018-07-02T17:03:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 22
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/421 "2018-07-12T00:40:39Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > I was surprised to hear that the boys were sedated and in something like a stretcher while they were pulled out. Apparently no swimming required of them. > > [BBC report via YT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=770lsq5t5_A) Upthread someone linked to a Facebook video showing someone being extracted from a cave on a stretcher. At the time, it wasn’t clear if it was in fact these boys, but now it seems that it was. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/422 "2018-07-12T01:10:10Z")
The Aussie doctor that stayed wirh them is an anesthesiologist. He knew the best sedative to safely give them. > **[Cave rescue: The Australian diving doctor who stayed with the boys](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-44789693)** > > The expert caver gave the OK for the boys to dive their way out and was among the last to leave. > **[Aussie doctor hailed for role in Thailand cave rescue](https://nypost.com/2018/07/09/aussie-doctor-hailed-for-role-in-thailand-cave-rescue/)** > > An Australian doctor who also is a renowned cave diver persuaded rescuers to change their initial strategy of first removing the strongest of the 12 boys trapped inside the flooded Thai cavern, acc… ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/423 "2018-07-12T01:57:47Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Upthread someone linked to a Facebook video showing someone being extracted from a cave on a stretcher. At the time, it wasn’t clear if it was in fact these boys, but now it seems that it was. No, actually the one up thread was shown to be not from this rescue. Unlike this BBC tape. They are not the same footage. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/424 "2018-07-12T04:07:33Z")
Very good article on the early days of the search for the boys. How the British divers got involved and who organized them for the search. I think most of the international divers involved in the search also helped with the rescue. The pumps made it all possible. Otherwise the boys probably wouldn’t have been found. > **[The Thai cave rescue ended in success. But only two weeks ago, it all seemed...](https://www-m.cnn.com/2018/07/11/asia/thai-cave-rescue-full-story-intl/index.html)** > > The Wild Boars soccer team are now safe and recovering in a Thai hospital. As the world celebrates their return, details of the incredible cave rescue effort have emerged. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2018, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/425 "2018-07-12T05:30:51Z")
Some pretty big brass ones by both the Thai and international teams. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/426 "2018-07-13T02:56:07Z")
Here is a good article on the rescue process: > **[‘Still Can’t Believe It Worked’: The Story of the Thailand Cave Rescue...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/world/asia/thailand-cave-rescue-seals.html)** > > It took plastic cocoons and anti-anxiety pills, bravery and providence to save the soccer team. “So many things could have gone wrong,” said one official. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/427 "2018-07-13T14:17:50Z")
[This AP story has lots of new information](https://apnews.com/e00274cbfdd34abda0fa6b82c4d97c61/Boys-meant-to-stay-1-hour-in-cave,-but-outside,-rains-began). > [@](#): > > Banphot Konkum, father of 13-year-old Duangpetch Promthep, told The Associated Press his son — better known by his nickname, Dom — said the team members didn’t know rain had started falling after they had entered the cave on June 23. But the rain caused flooding in the cave, blocking them from exiting. > > “After an hour when they wanted to leave, the water level was rising. They ran further inside the cave to escape from the water. The water flow was strong,” said Banphot. > > In their search for a safe haven, the boys were reported to have used their hands to feel the walls for an opening to take them to a higher, safer spot. Searchers later found what they thought were the boys’ handprints, giving them confidence the boys were alive and that the searchers were on the right path. > > “They, all 13 of them, saw a small passage or a crawl space, so they all dug the hole to get through to another spot, until they found Nen Nom Sao,” Banphot said, referring to the sandy slope on which they ended up sheltering. There was nowhere else to go. > [@](#): > > Banphot said all 13 rescued team members will enter the monkhood to pay tribute to Saman Kunan, a former Thai navy SEAL who died while diving to place essential supplies along the rescue route. Becoming a monk at a temple for at least a short period is a way of making merit in Thai Buddhist tradition. > > “We are planning the date and will do it whenever all the families are all ready,” said Banphot > [@](#): > > The mother of the youngest Wild Boar teammate, 11-year old Chanin Wiboonrungruang, told a Bangkok newspaper that her son told her the team did not make a special point of bringing along food since they were only planning a short trek into the cave. > > “After the first three nights with no food in the cave, my son felt extreme hunger and cried,” Aikhan told the Bangkok Post. “He had to rely only on water dripping from the rock. It was very cold at night and pitch dark. They had to lie huddled together. > > She said her son, nicknamed Tun, said the boys’ 25-year-old soccer coach Ekapol “Ake” Chanthawong, told them to meditate to ease their hunger and save their energy. > [@](#): > > One of the two British divers who found the group said the rescue operation was “completely uncharted, unprecedented territory,” and that he had not been certain the boys would be found alive. > > “Nothing like this has been done,” Rick Stanton said at a news conference Friday at London’s Heathrow airport after returning from Thailand. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/428 "2018-07-13T14:26:03Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Here is a good article on the rescue process: > [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/world/asia/thailand-cave-rescue-seals.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/12/world/asia/thailand-cave-rescue-seals.html) That article has loads of amazeballs info in it: > [@](#): > > Interviews with military personnel and officials detailed a rescue assembled from an amalgam of muscle and brainpower from around the world: 10,000 people participated, including 2,000 soldiers, 200 divers and representatives from 100 government agencies. > > It took plastic cocoons, floating stretchers and a rope line that hoisted the players and coach over outcroppings. The boys had been stranded on a rocky perch more than a mile underground. Extracting them required long stretches underwater, in bone-chilling temperatures, and keeping them submerged for around 40 minutes at a time. The boys were even given anti-anxiety medication to avert panic attacks. > [@](#): > > The risks were underscored on July 6 when Saman Gunan, a retired Thai Navy SEAL, died in an underwater passageway. Three SEAL frogmen were hospitalized after their air tanks ran low. Swift currents pushed divers off-track for hours at a time, sometimes tearing off their face masks. > > More than 150 members of the Thai Navy SEALs, outfitted with improvised equipment sometimes held together with duct tape, helped create the escape route. A crew of foreign and Thai cave divers courted death every time they explored Tham Luang’s cramped chambers. Overseas military teams brought search-and-rescue equipment. The Americans provided logistics, while British divers navigated the most hazardous stretches. > [@](#): > > Tham Luang Cave is a rare place where a person can become completely isolated. There is no GPS, no Wi-Fi, no cellphone service. The last known survey was conducted in the 1980s by a French caving society, but many of its deepest recesses remain unmapped. Spelunkers consider the cave one of the most challenging in the world. > [@](#): > > Deep within the cave, the water was so cold that the Thai divers’ teeth chattered while they rested during 12-hour shifts. Lacking proper helmets, the SEAL divers taped a medley of flashlights to their improvised headgear. > > On the 10th day, July 2, with little hope of discovering anything but bodies, a pair of British divers working to extend a network of guide ropes popped up near a narrow ledge. > > Suddenly, they saw 13 emaciated people perched in the dark. The Wild Boars had run out of food and light but had survived by sipping the condensation from the cave walls. And on and on… it’s a lengthy, well-written piece. > [@](#): > > “The most important piece of the rescue was good luck,” said Maj. Gen. Chalongchai Chaiyakham, the deputy commander of the Third Army region, which helped the operation. “So many things could have gone wrong, but somehow we managed to get the boys out.” > > “I still can’t believe it worked,” he said. Sometimes, human beings totally fucking rock! ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/429 "2018-07-13T19:08:46Z")
The best and most detailed account I’ve seen so far, with many new details not in the AP and NYT accounts. > **[‘Time is running out’: Inside the treacherous rescue of boys trapped in a...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/time-is-running-out-inside-the-treacherous-rescue-of-boys-trapped-in-thai-cave/2018/07/13/df335afe-8614-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306_story.html)** > > As the world watched, expert divers executed a desperate plan they assumed would mean the death of some of the young soccer players. Instead it ended in triumph. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/430 "2018-07-13T19:30:28Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > That article has loads of amazeballs info in it:And on and on… it’s a lengthy, well-written piece.Sometimes, human beings totally fucking rock! I agree. 10,000 people getting together to rescue 13 total strangers. This world is still full of good, decent people. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/431 "2018-07-13T19:39:59Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I agree. 10,000 people getting together to rescue 13 total strangers. This world is still full of good, decent people. From the WaPo story: > [@](#): > > Downhill, it flooded the fields of 128 farmers, destroying their rice harvests for the year. :eek: SERIOUS sacrifices have been made, even had Mr. Kunan not lost his life. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/432 "2018-07-13T20:04:27Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > The best and most detailed account I’ve seen so far, with many new details not in the AP and NYT accounts. > > [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/time-is-running-out-inside-the-treacherous-rescue-of-boys-trapped-in-thai-cave/2018/07/13/df335afe-8614-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306\_story.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/time-is-running-out-inside-the-treacherous-rescue-of-boys-trapped-in-thai-cave/2018/07/13/df335afe-8614-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306_story.html) All of those stories had details not in the other two. Upthread someone mentioned the likelihood of a movie version of this story. There’s also probably one or more books to be written. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/433 "2018-07-13T22:30:19Z")
It seems like a donation of equipment to the Thai SEAL teams would be a good thing. StG ---
**Author:** ![computergeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e56c9b/32.png) [@computergeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/computergeek)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/434 "2018-07-13T22:54:41Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > All of those stories had details not in the other two. Upthread someone mentioned the likelihood of a movie version of this story. There’s also probably one or more books to be written. This story is going to need a dang miniseries ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/435 "2018-07-13T22:58:53Z")
> [@computergeek](#): > > This story is going to need a dang miniseries Starts slow but picks up speed quickly in the opening episode, but the next 9 are just hours and hours of darkness with water noises. The last few are better tho and it does have a kick-ass ending! ---
**Author:** ![computergeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e56c9b/32.png) [@computergeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/computergeek)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2018, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/436 "2018-07-13T23:11:43Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > Starts slow but picks up speed quickly in the opening episode, but the next 9 are just hours and hours of darkness with water noises. The last few are better tho and it does have a kick-ass ending! I know you are just being silly, but I’m sure they would figure out a way to show what was going on inside the cave. But there was also a lot of stuff going on outside with the rescue planners ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/437 "2018-07-14T01:01:33Z")
I shudder reading how many well meaning, but untrained people went into those flooded caves searching for those boys. It’s fortunate there weren’t any injuries or deaths the first couple of days. Thank goodness they finally got trained cave divers involved in the search and eventual rescue. Even then, one diver lost his life. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/438 "2018-07-14T12:35:33Z")
I finished, or rather I need to get other stuff done now, with the sculpture; there’s things I’d like to improve but it’s mostly there. [LINK](https://imgur.com/SoMyG2h) ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/439 "2018-07-14T16:57:48Z")
That is excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2018, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173/440 "2018-07-14T17:31:04Z")
That is excellent. Well done, **Ale**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173.md?page=21) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/missing-soccer-team-found-alive-in-cave/817173.md?page=23)