12 boys lost in flooded Thai cave

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

It's awesome that the volume control on BBC's videos goes to 11--
:):wink: Either your comment starts a series of high level BBC management meetings discussing that and what sense it makes and what message it sends (outward appearance matters high up....) ... or that must be one of those essential software / app upgrades one's computers / phones spend so much bandwidth on (not to speak of the hazzle with ovcasional failures to update right with some SW). And next years big new upgrade feature: "volume goes to 12" and the year after the indicator hash marks get color coded from cool blue to green to orange and then firetruck red for the loudest two... and the slider will be moved to the right bottom corner because some expensive study indicated that eill increase site traffic and first click retainership ...And someone will make a living coding it...
 
I find it very appropriate that the volume control on a British webpage goes to eleven. Weren't Spinal Tap British?
 
:):wink: Either your comment starts a series of high level BBC management meetings discussing that and what sense it makes and what message it sends (outward appearance matters high up....) ... or that must be one of those essential software / app upgrades one's computers / phones spend so much bandwidth on (not to speak of the hazzle with ovcasional failures to update right with some SW). And next years big new upgrade feature: "volume goes to 12" and the year after the indicator hash marks get color coded from cool blue to green to orange and then firetruck red for the loudest two... and the slider will be moved to the right bottom corner because some expensive study indicated that eill increase site traffic and first click retainership ...And someone will make a living coding it...

I take it you are unfamiliar with This is Spinal Tap?

May I caution you against ordering your own henge.
 
I find it very appropriate that the volume control on a British webpage goes to eleven. Weren't Spinal Tap British?
Yes Spinal Tap were British and AFAIK the volume control is a tongue in cheek reference to them
 
I take it you are unfamiliar with This is Spinal Tap?
I am indeed.
Just googled it due to your question and will watch at some point... (and if I get the drift here chuckle about something once I see it...)
 
The bizarre thing is I just heard "Big Bottoms" on the radio yesterday and I've been walking around belting that out ever since, and then I noticed the volume control this morning. That's probably the second or third time I ever heard one of those songs on the radio.
 
I am indeed.
Just googled it due to your question and will watch at some point... (and if I get the drift here chuckle about something once I see it...)
It's completely insane, presented in a very matter of fact way. Worth the time.
 
Another "narrated summary story", maybe not with all the details divers really would be interested in but not everyone else:

The full story of Thailand’s extraordinary cave rescue - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44791998

Pretty good summary. Something new I read there:

1. Using smell to search for human presence in the cave. "Wherever there is air space we surface, we shout, we smell," John told the BBC. It's a standard procedure for such rescue operations." "We smelt the children before we saw or heard them.""

2. Strapping the boy on stretchers with face down to avoid water from entering their air passages. "A cylinder was strapped to the front of each child, while a handle was attached to their backs - and they were held face down to ensure water would run away from their faces.
John, the British rescue diver, likened the equipment to "a shopping bag" that allowed them to manoeuvre the boys around obstacles."

3. Perfect timing. "It was Tuesday 10 July - the day that locals said the cave would become completely flooded."
 
This is a very nice write up of the whole operation, though from a US POV:
Inside the treacherous rescue of boys trapped in cave

Thanks for the link. Another good article to read.

Some new facts come out from this article:

1. There were some speculation to what was the cause of the death of Saman Gunan. Some stated that he ran out of air. Some stated that he passed out due to lack of oxygen, which was the case in some of the chamber having oxygen level down to 15%. This link stated that his tank ran empty. "The divers finally emerged seven hours later, carrying a lifeless body: Saman's own tank had run out."

2. U.S. Air Force Maj. Charles Hodges, who led the American team and was so new to his new posting that his belongings had not arrived in Okinawa, Japan, was able to convince the Thai officials to start the rescue in small window of time with the rescue plan he laid out that we all later learned in the end. "You can wait until that finite window of time is over," Hodges said he told Thai officials, "and I can almost guarantee you that all of them will die."

"The Thai interior minister requested that Hodges and about eight others go into a private room. He wanted to hear their plan again. Hodges explained the mission's two parts, emphasizing it would take an entire day of preparation before the first boy would be pulled through the water. The Thais would continue to search for a drilling site if the diving plan failed.

They got their green light.

On July 7 - two weeks to the day since the boys went missing - the rescue plan, while not publicly acknowledged, was underway.

Air tanks were stashed along the muddy passageways, enough for the 12 boys, their coach, the four SEALs who had embedded with them, and the 18 divers who would carry them out. Riggers strung a web of static ropes for hoisting the cocoon-like stretchers over vast fields of jagged rocks."

3. Why they used 80% oxygen tank for the boys to breathe. "They readied the mask, attached to a tank filled with 80 percent oxygen. The rich mixture would saturate his tissues, making him easier to revive if he stopped breathing."

4. "Finally, the boy was swaddled in a flexible plastic stretcher - akin to a tortilla wrap, Hodges said - to confine his limbs and protect him from the cheese-grater walls. And then, with his teammates watching, they pulled him under the murky water."
 
Last edited:
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

Back
Top Bottom