That trapped soccer team in flooded cave system

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Just the thought of cave diving in very tight squeeze through passages gives me claustrophobia.

How do you train kids not to panic and get claustrophobia on the way out of there is beyond me.

Either drilling down or pumping the water out to safe levels would be the safest two routes I would think.
 
I'm playing armchair quarterback also, but giving a crash course in diving to a bunch of teenagers and younger who don't even know how to swim, and then expecting them to safely make it out on a dive that takes 3+ hours for the best rescue divers in the world to do gives me a shiver at the thought. I suspect you'd lose half of them taking them out.

If it's essential to get one out in a hurry, maybe consider it for that one. Otherwise, I think the other options(pumping, waiting for the waters to recede, drilling a rescue shaft) all sound like safer options. I know that waiting a few months is going to be emotionally agonizing both for the kids and their families, but at least they're safe, fed, tended to, and have some contact with the outside world while waiting.
 
There is a enough know-how in the world to rescue this group. I expect a safe outcome. I can say one thing about people in a cave having worked for the National Park Service at Carlsbad Caverns for several summers. Brings out a lot of goofiness.
 
I read they are running Internet to them. They'll able to read up on how to escape.

There has to be more powerful pumps that can be shipped and set up to pump out the water. Don't mines have heavy duty water pumps. The pumps I saw on TV looked like the ones my local fire department used to pump out my basement when it flooded when I was a kid.
 
Originally Posted By: Leo99
I read they are running Internet to them. They'll able to read up on how to escape.

There has to be more powerful pumps that can be shipped and set up to pump out the water. Don't mines have heavy duty water pumps. The pumps I saw on TV looked like the ones my local fire department used to pump out my basement when it flooded when I was a kid.


I believe the cave is under a mountain. So all the rain that hits the mountain eventually flows downhill and into the caves. So if you keep pumping it out, water is still going to come back in. Although there was one report that the water they were pumping out was ending back in the cave, I guess they didn't divert it correctly.
 
can't even imagine the anguish the parents and kids are going through. I;m betting someone has an [censored] kicking lined up for the coach if they get out.
 
One rescue diver dead. Oxygen levels in the cave dropping to 15%. Normal is 21%. It's a bad situation. They want to run a 3 mile long hose to supply oxygen to the trapped people and rescuers. The kids have reported that they heard chickens clucking. They think there might be a natural chimney from the surface down into the cave or the kids just imagined it. And there are strong currents in the water now.
 
The diver apparently ran out of air and there must have been no surface in the section he was in to which he could make a swimming ascent. One of the things every diver is taught and must demonstrate is a swimming ascent from ~30' while exhaling all the way. You must blow some bubbles to keep the airway open since a lung rupture could otherwise occur. This is surprisingly easy to do.
He apparently had no spare bottle and there must have been no other diver close enough to him for him to grab their octo, assuming that they're carrying them as a part of their rig.
I'm a little surprised that they weren't diving surface-supplied since air would then be of no concern and nitrogen loading would be of little concern in what is shallow water. It's also nice not to have a tank or tanks on your back particularly in confined spaces.
A tragic and awful loss of a man who was just there to help in the rescue.
If further flooding is likely and hypoxia is a real possibility, then an underwater rescue may be the only viable option for these young men and their coach, just as I wrote in my other post in this thread.
Needless to say, the coach should be the last one out.
 
Originally Posted By: Mr Nice
Hopefully the kids make it out of cave OK.


I hope so. Water levels rising. Oxygen levels dropping. It's a bad situation getting worse.
 
Originally Posted By: mattwithcats
36 inch drill, and mine rescue chamber.

Punch a hole down in 3-4 days tops...


You can’t drill into that tiny space with fluids and air drilling uses very powerful compressors …
 
Originally Posted By: Brad_C
Fingers crossed and prayers for those who believe in that stuff.


Interesting posit...WWDD ?

What would Dawkins do ?
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Originally Posted By: Brad_C
Fingers crossed and prayers for those who believe in that stuff.


Interesting posit...WWDD ?

What would Dawkins do ?


I'd like to think he'd be there with the strategists looking at the science involved in the rescue and contributing significantly. Either that or at home sitting back with a Scotch singing "Que sera".

Either way, looks like 6 out at this point. Fingers are crossed for the rest.
 
Quote:
6 out at this point. Fingers are crossed for the rest.

thumbsup2.gif
 
Those rescue divers are some serious tough as nails guys! Genuine heroes! Keeping them all in my prayers!
 
My wife had the TV on earlier and said they have three or four out. Something about placing reserve oxygen tanks along the route out.Those kids must be scared beyond what we can imagine, but with time running out they are probably open to almost any rescue effort. Looks like this news maker will be over today.
 
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