A look back at the Nang Non Cave Rescue in Thailand, 2018 (Pt 1)
Part 1: Events leading up to the rescue
‘Fate had a hand in it…..’
Those words came to mind as I watched, like the rest of the world, with delighted relief as the final member of the Wild Boars football team emerged, bound to a stretcher but safe and apparently well after 17 days in the Tham Luang Cave.
It had all started so innocently. It was Saturday the 23rd of June 2018, 12 members of the team, aged 11 to 16 plus their 25-year-old assistant coach Ekaphon Chanthawong having finished their regular Saturday football practice, parked their bikes outside the cave and ventured in. Some of the boys had been before; they had in mind to head to a certain point, around 4km inside so started making their way.
Late June in Chiang Rai, Thailand’s most northerly province means rain, a lot of rain. It had been bright and sunny when the boys went in but in June in that area, the weather can turn quickly. The boys wouldn’t have realised but the rains that teamed down through ‘radoo fon’ (the rainy season) on to the Doi Nang Non mountain range would drain down, ultimately into the Tham Luang Cave. A sign outside the cave warned of the danger of floods but, put it down to youthful exuberance or the ‘Mai pen rai'(never mind) attitude which still prevails in Thailand, the boys proceeded in.
It was all fun for a while but at some terrible moment, the boys realised that the waters had followed them into the cave and ultimately cut them off. They were stuck; stranded on what, at that point, seemed a high point but the waters were rising; for how long would they be safe?
At the boys’ homes, parents were getting concerned; where were their sons? they started calling Head Coach, Nopparat Khanthawong but he didn’t have an answer. He checked and found that some of the boys had talked of going to the cave and that was all anybody knew. He raised the alarm.
‘Fate had a hand in it…’. A few miles from the cave a retired Englishman, Vern Unsworth, had set up home. Unsworth was a highly experienced caver who had previously mapped the Tham Luang Cave, indeed he was planning to go in the following day. Unsworth heard about the boys and the reports that the cave was flooded. He went to the mouth of the cave to get an update. The reports were confirmed. It seemed that the boys had got stuck, cut off behind advancing and deepening waters; anybody’s worst nightmare.
Unsworth had previously been an active member of the UK caving community, he had extensive contacts there. He also knew that the people who stood the best chance of rescuing the boys from this kind of situation were the members of the British Cave Rescue Council. This group is a network of volunteer rescuers who have, over the years, developed a unique skill set which has enabled them to save many lives all over the world.
The fates had a hand in it……….if the boys had been in any other Thai province there would not have been Vern Unsworth or anybody with his level of experience and with his contacts with the British Cave diving rescue team close by.
Unsworth set up the contacts. Knowing that time was at a premium the Brits mobilised as quickly as possible arriving in Chiang Rai on the 27th of June. They joined a squad of Thai Navy SEALs who had been searching the caves since the 25th. The story quickly went global. More specialist teams arrived from Australia, the US and China. Individuals with skills in geology, drainage, medicine, caving and cave diving to name but a few arrived, all desperate to do whatever they could to help find the boys and get them out.
The BCRC team made an initial ‘recce’; the scene could hardly have been worse; the waters were high, and rising, flowing fast and offering in some places, zero visibility, debris was being flung around by the force of the water. But the team calmly put their protocol into practice and started laying down guidelines to mark their routes. Some areas were totally submerged, some places allowed the divers to surface and look up and, importantly breathe in the air. This is a vital technique of the cave dive rescuer, they would be able to smell the boys.
The divers reported the conditions back. The mood in the camp was serious. Privately the BCRC worried that even if they could find the boys, how would they be able to get them all out? And safely? But, whatever, they would use every bit of their experience and skill in trying.
Above ground, a huge operation quickly evolved. 10.000 volunteers assembled. Their requirement really was to turn the tide of nature. Industrial pumps were brought in and worked round the clock to try to reduce the water levels but the weather forecast would rarely cooperate. The skies were angry and grey, the air moist; more rain was inevitable.
Inside, the conditions would get worse before they got better. On several occasions, the search had to be halted as the waters flooded in. The danger was proven when, on Day 3 tragedy struck, a diver with the Thai Navy SEALs Saman Kunan, exhausted by his efforts, drowned. Everybody above ground was crestfallen but if anything, the death added to the rescuers resolve; Saman shouldn’t die in vain.
The teams worked on, co-ordinating, putting plans together. There were now over 100 divers helping, working with the British team’s lead divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen as they kept to their original plan; leading the dive teams through and checking off the myriad caverns and passages that made up the underworld that was the Tam Luang cave system. The divers worked on methodically with coolness and efficiency borne of their years of experience. They worked on. For 6 days nothing, it was beyond frustrating as time after time it seemed that the weather was winning, the divers were forced to retreat. They would emerge from the cave exhausted knowing only too well that it was a race against time. Where could the boys be? Were they still alive? And if so, how much longer could they survive? One thing was certain though; no-one would give up.
On the 2nd of July, the weather improved and the search resumed. Stanton and Volanthen pursued a line toward a point known by locals as Pattaya Beach, literally a sandy beach type area around 4km from the mouth of the cave. It had been suggested as a point the boys might have headed to. There was no sign of life there. The divers continued, keeping to their protocol, occasionally surfacing, breathing, sniffing….. and then they knew, it was different, there was a smell…the smell of life…..of human life……had they found them, after all this time……alive?
They looked up and shone their lights across the cavern, they heard a call, they advanced and as they got closer to a raised ledge the form of the group of boys took shape.
‘Hello, hello…..’
FOUND!
The boys were perched on their haunches on a ledge above the water.
‘How many of you ?’
’13’ one of the boys responded.
The boys mustered a few English words, they kept saying ‘thank you’ and ‘thank you so much’.
They had completely lost track of time, ‘what day?’ they asked.
Volanthen and Stanton tried to explain how long they had been there and that they(the divers) would return with more help and that very soon they would get them out.
The word went back. The boys had been found. Alive; all of them!
See Part 2: Details of the rescue
Philip Wilson
October 2019
The first film about the rescue of the Wild Boars, ‘The Cave’ by Thai-Irish Producer -Director Tom Waller will be released on November 2019. The film recounts the story from the points of view of several of the people instrumental to the rescue; the divers, the US army sergeant and local officials. Several of these people including divers Jim Warny (Belgium), Erik Brown(Canada), Mikko Passi (Finland) and Tan Xioo Long (China) play themselves in the film ensuring its accuracy and authenticity. The film recounts the search and then the planning and ultimate rescue which to the world’s relief ended in success. Look out for it!
Note: All photos and images reproduced by kind courtesy De Warranne Pictures
