The 13

Anyone else following this story of the 12 kids and their coach stuck in the caves?.. DAMN!! How incredible is it that they’ve been found alive after 9 days?

The escape plan looks tricky though… either wait for water to recede in 4 months or teach them to dive the km out of the cave?.. Too crazy!! Very very scary!!

Was surprised they were found alive. That said, they’ll either have them dive or pump it out. Diving seems like a sensible option, diving, particularly at low depths is extremely easy, basically just breathing. They teach up to 20-40ft intro courses to drunk and incompetent tourists in half day sessions before taking them out to sea. I can’t imagine sitting for 9 days in pure dark with no food waiting and not being sure someone was coming for you, must have seemed like months.

Story reminded me of the Mossdale Disaster which is harrowing if you have some spare time.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/what-lies-beneath-mossdale-caving-disaster-794268.html

I love adventure sports and typically have a high threshold for uncertainty and discomfort but caving is one activity you could not pay me to do in any alternate universe. Watching crap like people doing Nutty Putty makes me actually get nauseous. Doesn’t help when stories like John Jones (also Nutty Putty) are out there.

https://youtu.be/ZYEKhgFrpd4?t=183

Maybe those kids can just stay in the cave and establish a new society free from racism and prejudice, and also with free college tuition and job guarantees.

I think there will be a movie about it.

Does it come with a good dental plan?

More realistically, I imagine this is the scene the divers came upon:

https://youtu.be/LALF16BOUQQ?t=40

That Independent article was a good read. made me anxious as hell, but an intriguing story.

i thought this was going to be about Pokhim joining MS-13

I thought it was about the show Rome…

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NKw7kkrMvw]

Seriously though, incredible story about these kids being trapped. Hope all goes well.

The Rome and the Spartacus TV series were good.

Me too.

Yeah, cave diving with no vis is serious. RIP. Apparently this is a 5 hour dive through caves in muddy water. The casualty below died while trying to place tanks along the route, since experienced divers only get around an hour per tank. Hyperventilating children may get significantly less. This is very depth dependent (gas is compressed under pressure, so it is consumed much faster), but I’m assuming low depth.

“The massive operation inside and around Tham Luang Nang Non cave suffered its first death Friday when a former Thai navy SEAL passed out underwater and could not be revived.”

https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/thai-authorities-navy-seal-working-rescue-boys-trapped-56396928

Yeah but this is easily solved. You go in groups with like two divers per kid and the kids each breathe off of one of the diver’s spare regulators. You can test them in small dives first. One of the things they did wrong with that Thai Seal (not US Seal) is not having a rope strung that you’re sliding along and having him diving alone (huge no-no in these situations). Anyhow, you can get a lot more than an hour per small tank (I’ve heard up to 10 hours in some cases) with a rebreather which is definitely usable in low depths. It seems like the big issue so far is that this is Thailand and they just lack the basic tech / expertise to get this done efficiently. Most of the heavy lifting including the initial contact has been performed by either the UK and Australians and you’ll notice they’ve been fine. I didn’t account for the fact that some of the kids can’t even swim so that will be an issue.

Agree that diving alone is obviously a terrible idea. I am not sure if it is logistically necessary for this operation.

5 hour cave dives in muddy water are difficult and dangerous for US Navy SEALs. I know this because ex-SEALs I know have told me in relation to this incident (albeit, without full info on the necessary dive plan, which I understand changes with the monsoons). With an untrained person in tow, who may not swim well and who you can barely see, people will likely die. Apparently there are portions that are very narrow where tanks need to be removed to get through. Kids may panic, which can obviously be fatal for the courier and the cargo. As someone with some diving experience, scuba diving is a very deceptively easy way to die. I don’t really do it much anymore.

I think they will attempt it (likely with expert cave divers, probably not Thai), but I think the risk is quite high.

I hear you, I’ve done a decent amount of diving too. A lot of it I think comes down to the variable of the kids.

But I still think that I haven’t seen rebreathers used and those would allow you to use a very small tank in those areas as long as depth is low enough. I’m guessing the dive is broken up with various chambers above water, that would be typical of caves.

So they’re all out. I stand by my original thesis, a bunch of kids that some of which can’t even swim were able to get out. I think the one diver just colossally messed up and the media ran with it. You know they were just scheming, “Great, how can we make a fanfare out of this.” Anyhow, most of the tunnel had been drained to allow for head above water for the majority of the trip and the governor was clear he wouldn’t move ahead until there was little to no risk. One thing that constantly gets skipped over in media in their race to use the most eye popping anecdotes is that the original two divers that found the boys reached them in one 90 minute dive, this was without a guide rope or idea of where they were going, while searching alone and with the cave fully flooded. News these days though…

glad the wee boys got out.

Here’s some info on how they got out: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44695232

You might not recognise it as news as it doesn’t have a person shouting it at you in an annoying whine.

But anyway, in short. It was still a highly dangerous task

But how is it highly dangerous? It’s following a rope with three divers together. I’ve dove tight spaces before it’s fine, especially with good precautions. They were even using full face regulators so they literally just had to breath and crawl. Media just ran with this one. Yes, one guy got lost and it’s sad but he colossally messed up diving alone and somehow straying from the line. Again, two guys with no assistance did it in 90 minutes unguided.

That nutty putty stuff is a big nope from me. After watching The Descent back in high school I crossed all cave hobbies off the list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSYg7Z1KS_I

I watch that episode every now and then when I feel the need for some bromance.