FIFA had invited the boys to attend the World Cup Final in Moscow in person on July 15 if they were all rescued safe and sound. At this rate, they could make it to Moscow in plenty of time, with a couple of days before and after for medical treatment and jet lag respectively.
With Neymar out, how many professional divers are left on the remaining teams?
This India Today video on YouTube has some video of the Elon Musk team’s tube. Might still be needed for some weaker youths. Time will tell.
The 60 people are dead - irreversably dead. Little reason to dwell or report on something that’s a done deal.
The soccer team’s rescue is a continuous ongoing event and there is still much doubt as to whether all will survive, hence far more media coverage.
ISTM that one problem with using a rescue pod or capsule/bag of any sort is that the accompanying rescue divers won’t be able to see what condition the boys are in while underwater, and can’t see if they’re suffocating or what.
That’s a really good idea, IMO. Not sure off-the-shelf materials are available that would withstand the rigors of an underwater environment while being used as an escape route, but it seems a feasible thing that could be prepped in advance and ready for a future situation.
And sadly, high-casualty ferry accidents are so common in that part of the world, it would have barely made the news if it wasn’t for something else going on in the region. 
In church today there was a formal prayer for those trapped, amongst the other prayers for local friends and family.
Hopefully this will end well. The coach belongs in jail, but I predict as long as none of the children dies, he’ll get a slap on the wrist.
Why? My understanding was that he took the children into an area that was open to the public and not regarded as dangerous, except during monsoon season. Which starts in July, as a rule. Just surprised everyone by starting early this year. Is this incorrect?
Mind you, I really don’t think it relevant he’s an orphan or anything. He was either in the right or not, regardless of his upbringing.
My understanding is the cave is off limits to the public due to its dangerous conditions and that this is well known to the locals. Even if it were not off limits, I would not want my kid’s soccer coach taking him on a lengthy spelunking journey. I know it’s Thailand, but I would still insist on signing off on a waiver for that sort of thing. I have not been in this cave, but I have been in other caves in the area – not spelunking, just walking – and no way I would allow any kid of mine go that far back in one of these.
The monsoon season has not started early. I lived in Thailand for 24-1/2 years including northern Thailand for two years. What I’m hearing on the news is this is the middle of the monsoon season, which is close to correct. It can start as early as May or June, but especially in the North, July and even June is common. Anyone saying it started early is off base.
The coach belongs in jail. Period.
For all intents and purposes, the kids’ parents apparently have exonerated the coach already.
Of course they did. This is Thailand. I would expect nothing else unless one or more kid does get killed. The coach still belongs in jail. But he probably will not go to jail as long as the kids all live. I hope he is not allowed to coach anymore.
The coach is directly responsible for keeping these kids alive during a horrific ordeal. Even if he showed some error in judgement (which I’m not sure I agree with based on articles I’ve read), he has been a hero from that point forward.
We’ll have to agree to disagree. I certainly do NOT see someone who got them into this situation needlessly as a hero.
The invitation from FIFA to attend the World Cup championship game is awesome, and I assume the boys will have other invitations as well. (Perhaps to meet the king, for one.) But honestly, all of the public attention they’re about to receive could really screw them up. It might be best to let them return to their families, their school and their team as the unknown group they were.
I’ll split the difference with the two of you - to me it depends on the circumstances of them going in. If it was deemed unsafe and closed and he took them in anyway, then he recklessly endangered them, and he doesn’t merit hero for attempting to fix it afterwards (especially since someone has died). If it was open the public and deemed safe at the time he did it and it was entirely reasonable to think nothing bad would happen from this based on the information available to him, then he may merit hero.
The rescue divers most definitely merit the title.
From what I understand - which admittedly is not based on well-researched information - the coach didn’t lead the boys into the cave. They went of their own volition, as some sort of rite of passage, after a practice. When they didn’t return home, the parents contacted the coach, who knew of the cave and went to find the kids, and by the time he did, they were trapped and forced deeper into the cave by the rising waters.
There seems to be all sorts of info out there. Mine is the coach led them in, and not for the first time, and after becoming trapped a park ranger noticed their bicycles outside the cave entrance.
Expect further confusion. My former press buddies in Bangkok are telling me that while the cave was off limits, now that the eyes of the world are on them, the national government is putting pressure on the local government to backtrack on that. “You guys were wrong, it wasn’t really off limits, was it? WAS IT?” Which would not be the first time something like that has happened. Thailand is very sensitive about its international image.
Apart from the uncertainty of whether the coach led them in or went in after them, it seems unlikely they chose of their own free well to travel a whopping 2.5 miles into the cave. How far in from the entrance was the first area of flooding encountered by rescuers? Given that water is flowing out of the cave (rather than in), it seems likely that something close to the entrance flooded first and cut them off from the outside world. Concern over progressive flooding may have driven them further into the cave, or possibly a decision to look for an alternate exit.
That’s one theory. There are plenty of other theories, and they will all remain as such until the kids and the coach all come out and can deliver straight answers directly to the authorities. As such, I think it’s a bit premature just now to declare that anyone should be jailed or fired or anything else.