Underwater Tourist
Contributor
Copy pasting the movie description that made me watch it.
Personally, I didn't know much about the effort - especially in detail - that the two Europeans divers put in.
Since the release of the documentary 13 LOST numerous complaints were made that the British divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen in fact did credit Ben Reymenants and Maksym Polejaka for their essential contribution in finding the children, especially when Rick and John gave up on the rescue. Truth is Rick Stanton did not officially credit the two European divers until 3 years after the rescue (1 year after the release of 13 LOST) and John Volanthen never assigned any credit to their invaluable help. Even though in his book "Thirteen Lessons that Saved Thirteen Lives" John explained that one should always give credit where credit is due (Lesson 8). In fact John only discredited Ben Reymenants in his book and never even mentioned Maksym Polejaka once.
John made a ridiculous claim in his book that Ben, who is an exceedingly competent diver and taught high level diving courses for decades, pushed for an immediate extraction without making any plan whatsoever on the night the children were found. It's John's against Ben's word because nobody understood what was said between them on that night, not even Rick who sat right next to John during the argument. However one team, believe it or not, did push to dive the children out right there and then the same night. But it wasn't Ben, It was the British team, namely Vern Unsworth who told the New York Times that night that "It would be far better for the boys to be taken out immediately" Vern added " Because they have never dived before, they will have to learn very quickly, like in the next few hours."
Ben was also quoted in the same article, here is the link: https://archive.is/At3bm#selection-1271.0-1663.88
Ben was later blocked from entering the cave. To support this action, false claims were made that Ben had sold pictures and footage of the rescue and gave unauthorized interviews where he apparently had slagged off the British divers. But the truth is, when the British divers gave up on the rescue and the children, a reporter asked where the British divers were and Ben simply stated that he didn't know, but reports said that they had packed their bags and left. Master sergeant Derek Anderson, who is on record, said that Rick Stanton refused to work with Ben when he had returned just one day before the rescue and because the rescue team was already set with Rick as the leader and because the British team was under the wings of the US Air Force, they had no choice but to act upon Rick's request. Two Thai government officials also confirmed Derek Anderson's claim. Derek thought that Ben was a good diver and that all the accusations about Ben were conveyed to him by Rick but personally never made any negative observations of Ben.
When two leaders can not work together one has to leave, so simple is that and the USAF made a decision which Ben fully understood. But the way the ban of Ben was executed by hanging pamphlets with pictures grabbed from his facebook account can only be described as immoral, moverover the pamphlets looked more like a 19-century WANTED sign. Instead of handling the matter professionally and discreetly Gary Mitchel from the British Cave Rescue Council according to Rick Stanton approved flyers with Ben's pictures on it prohibiting him entrance into the cave. Knowing that hundreds if not thousands of cameras would pick up on it, the flyers were distributed all around the cave site and Chiang Rai airport. Of course the hungry media reported on it and caused irreversible damage to Ben's character. Even Rick Stanton personally called Gary Mitchel’s act unprofessional, unfair and harsh. Others just called it disgusting.
