After weeks of uncertainty and dangerous weather conditions, four boys trapped inside the Tham Luang Cave in Thailand have successfully been extracted by divers in an hours-long rescue mission.
The first two boys were successfully freed from the cave around 6 p.m. local time on Sunday, with the other two boys rescued shortly after, Narongsak Osatanakorn, the former Chiang Rai governor who has been heading rescue efforts, said at a press conference.
The boys that have made it out of the cave have made it here, to a hospital in Chiang Rai, about an hour south of the cave. Remarkable progress. This was far from a sure thing. And yet we have 8 more kids and their coach that remain underground. pic.twitter.com/4S95kg1dFE
— Matt Rivers (@MattRiversCNN) July 8, 2018
The boys were immediately placed in ambulances and rushed to the hospital in Chiang Rai to be examined and treated.
On Saturday, the “water levels were the lowest they had been,” Osatanakorn said, with most of the cave walkable. However, the boys still had to dive more than a half-mile, along with two divers each guiding them, to get to safety. The boys wore full-faced masks “while hanging on to the bodies of rescue divers,” reported Channel News Asia.
Thai government releases graphic about #thamluangcaverescue . Full face masks; 2 divers accompanying 1 boy; guided by rope. When facing a very narrow path, they will release the tank from back and slowly roll tank & guide the boy through. They walk from Chamber 3 to mouth of cave pic.twitter.com/pLUKa8lHfd
— Nick Beake (@Beaking_News) July 8, 2018
It took divers more than six hours to reach the boys from the command center set up a mile into the cave, according to TIME.
The rescue mission has been put on hold for the time being as supplies, including oxygen, are replenished. Osatanakorn estimated that the rescue would continue in “10 to 20 hours.”
Osatanakorn said the operation was “more successful than [he] expected,” but the race against the clock continues as eight young boys and their 25-year-old soccer coach Ekkapol Chantawong still remain trapped in a dry chamber more than two miles from the entrance of the cave.
Fighting against floodwaters and dropping oxygen levels and racing against the clock of an impending monsoon rainstorm, the rescue mission has been fraught with dangers. On Friday, a volunteer diver succumbed to fatal oxygen deprivation, according to ABC News, underscoring just how dangerous the conditions are, even for trained professionals. To combat rapidly dropping oxygen levels, the rescue team has pumped “pure air” into the chamber and eliminated all nonessential personnel from the area to preserve oxygen, CNN reported.
Best graphic of cave layout/issues I’ve seen – via https://t.co/99aHSbmsm4 pic.twitter.com/OVgrEnEWTx
— Steve (@SteveInCM) July 8, 2018
The Wild Boars soccer team consisting of 12 boys and their coach first went missing on June 23 after entering the cave. Heavy rains flooded part of the cave system, trapping the soccer team inside the cave, according to The Huffington Post. The group had already been trapped for more than a week when they were found by two British volunteer rescue divers on July 2.
Since then, the Thai Navy, along with expert divers, engineers and rescuers from around the world had teamed up to rescue the team and deliver food, water, medicine and oxygen tanks to the trapped soccer team. Divers also taught the boys ― some of whom did not know how to swim ― breathing and diving techniques to prepare them for the journey out of the cave, HuffPost reports.
Thai officials also began collaborating with tech entrepreneur Elon Musk to find alternative rescue methods to free the young boys, ABC News reports. Musk wrote on Twitter that his team at SpaceX, his rocket company, is building a “tiny, kid-size submarine” to help the boys escape. Musk also wrote on Twitter that an inflatable nylon tube could be used as a sort of underwater “air tunnel” to rescue the soccer team.
Not Space-X. But a Thai version of @elonmusk idea of an air-filled tube for trapped boys to get out, being tested near #Thamluangcave pic.twitter.com/udsKAdHLgY
— Jonathan Head (@pakhead) July 8, 2018
The boys urged their loved ones to not worry about them in letters written to their families, and wrote that they hoped to be able to eat their favorite foods soon.
“Dad, mom don’t worry about me,” wrote 11-year-old Chanin Viboonrungruang to his parents, according to CNN. “I am fine. Please tell Pee Yod [a female relative] to take me to eat fried chicken. Love you all.”