Thailand cave rescue: How can rescuers free the boys?

[Yazata]

Thai cave rescue: Six boys now above ground

Yay!  Slowly but surely.

It takes a village.

Apparently they are using the diving option, where the boys swim out accompanied by rescue divers. I guess that with rains coming in and the waters pumped to the lowest levels that they are likely to reach, they felt they had little choice but to act immediately and do it this way. Sounds like some of the world's best cave rescue divers have assembled there.

The news that six are out has been corrected to four. But surprisingly, these kids did a lot better than had been expected and seem to be in reasonably good physical shape upon emerging.

Here's hoping that the rest of them make it out without any mishaps.

[C C]

Apparently they are using the diving option, where the boys swim out accompanied by rescue divers. Apparently they are using the diving option, where the boys swim out accompanied by rescue divers. I guess that with rains coming in and the waters pumped to the lowest levels that they are likely to reach, they felt they had little choice but to act immediately and do it this way. [...]

Yah. Despite all the confident of talk of the engineers, the methods offered by Musk were too experimental and untested and possibly overly elaborate for the minimum time available. He should actually be relieved to escape all the bad publicity and criticism he would have received had there been fatalities or injuries in the course of using pods, tubing, etc. Goes back to the "pessimism about volunteering" that dark adages like "No good deed goes unpunished" and "Every heroic surgeon is one mishap away from being a villain" sport.

~

[Yazata]

Yah. Despite all the confident of talk of the engineers, the methods offered by Musk were too experimental and untested and possibly overly elaborate for the minimum time available. He should actually be relieved to escape all the bad publicity and criticism he would have received had there been fatalities or injuries in the course of using pods, tubing, etc.

At least they were motivated to experiment with the technology. Musk says that they will continue working on their rescue pod idea, so that if they are needed later in Thailand, or for the next time something like this happens, there might be an additional option.

https://interestingengineering.com/elon-...-thai-cave

I also saw a photo somewhere of Thais who were experimenting with an inflatable tube of their own. Here's a news story about them:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world...37376.html

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Here's something interesting that I don't believe has been reported anywhere except by a small-town newspaper (the Mad River Union in Arcata California) and by some Thai language media.

Apparently Elon Musk didn't just have his SpaceX engineers on the case, he (or his people) were also phoning around to get other teams working on the problem and producing their own designs and pod-prototypes.

This is about some pods that an inflatable boat company called Wing Inflatables, designed and manufactured in just a few hours after receiving a 6 am rush emergency call from SpaceX.

http://madriverunion.com/arcatas-wing-in...ve-rescue/

Photos in that story of their pods, actually more of a flexible body bag idea, with an air supply and ability to adjust boyancy, being rush-tested in the Arcata community swimming pool.

The newspaper says:

"Branagh [the Wing Inflatables guy] frankly stated that the pods represent a last-resort deus ex machina of unproven efficacy. But with oxygen levels in the cave dropping and Monsoons on the way in, it's one more option for rescuers on the scene. "This is not the ideal system," Branagh said. "We're hoping pumps will work and they can get out another way." But, he said, with more engineering and testing, the pods could evolve into "a wonderful solution" and a new product for use in cave rescues, which occur year-round all over the world.

[RainbowUnicorn]

i only hope the rescue divers do not feel forced to risk their own lifes by not doing it there way.
they are the specially trained profesionals with decades of specialist training.
they only have to do the same thing 2 more times and they have them.
im hoping they are not forced to try and do them all in one go and not before they get enough sleep inbetween dives.

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Apparently they are using the diving option, where the boys swim out accompanied by rescue divers. Apparently they are using the diving option, where the boys swim out accompanied by rescue divers. I guess that with rains coming in and the waters pumped to the lowest levels that they are likely to reach, they felt they had little choice but to act immediately and do it this way. [...]

Yah. Despite all the confident of talk of the engineers, the methods offered by Musk were too experimental and untested and possibly overly elaborate for the minimum time available. He should actually be relieved to escape all the bad publicity and criticism he would have received had there been fatalities or injuries in the course of using pods, tubing, etc. Goes back to the "pessimism about volunteering" that dark adages like "No good deed goes unpunished" and "Every heroic surgeon is one mishap away from being a villain" sport.

~

The fact he has started is awesome. there is obviousely a need for that type of device.
he may be able to have them installed on deep sea rigs and pipe lines and even submerines and cruise ships.

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He wants divers to pull a plastic tube through the flooded parts of the cave to the boys. Then have one or more boys enter the tube, seal the end, and pump it full of air like a bouncy house (Elon likes bouncy houses.) The tube would naturally conform itself to the tight spots and the kids could just crawl back through it to safety.

main draw back is if 1 of the kids collapses in the pipe then all are stuck. being able to sealit then reel it in would be better as a 4 kilometer crawl on your stomach is more than anyone who is not a navy seal level person could cope with.

being able to balance the tube air pressure while reeling it in would work. it would need to be extremely expensive tube to stand not being cut on the rock.

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wishing them all luck
i am thinking of them.

[Yazata]

Good news is that reports say that four more boys have been successfully extracted from the cave by the divers. That brings the total to eight.

Bad news is that rains are causing conditions to worsen and some reports say that the rescue has been "suspended" temporarily. They aren't giving up and still say that they hope that they will have everyone out by tomorrow.

Elon Musk's tiny 'submarine' is on its way to Thailand, but might not be needed there.

There are also reports that a US Special Operations personnel recovery team is on scene, but they may not be needed either. The Thai Seals seem to have done a very good job so far.

It's starting to sound like a mob scene above the cave, with cave rescuers from all around the world along with hordes of journalists and TV cameras. We all know how they love to shove and shout.

[C C]

[...] Elon Musk's tiny 'submarine' is on its way to Thailand, but might not be needed there. [...]

They can try it out in the cave after the rescue is over. Not like he needs a real kid in there to test if it can survive the abrasive surfaces and squeeze through the constricted spaces. A few rats tossed in as passengers can test the reliability of the air supply and avoidance of carbon dioxide toxicity, water-proofing, and survival rating from being jostled around.

~

[RainbowUnicorn]

[...] Elon Musk's tiny 'submarine' is on its way to Thailand, but might not be needed there. [...]

They can try it out in the cave after the rescue is over. Not like he needs a real kid in there to test if it can survive the abrasive surfaces and squeeze through the constricted spaces. A few rats tossed in as passengers can test the reliability of the air supply and avoidance of carbon dioxide toxicity, water-proofing, and survival rating from being jostled around.

~

i expect that the Local Tradition will be to close the cave for a while once the kids & coach are out to allow the family of the deceased to visit the cave and allow the local priests to do a service.
i should imagine the govener will want to have it shut down for a week or soo to give the teams enough time to pick up their gear check everything and then contractors to start removing the disturbed rock & soil so it can be returned to a tourist attraction.
the local farmers are going to(have lost) lose some of their crops so they say, so it would be nice to see a little infastructure upgrade to allow easier production and goods transit for the local market.

maybe some of the flooded land can be leased to a company to build a pole house resort that provides a few jobs and buys local produce & pays local tax with a heli pad that earns landing tax for the local economy.

smal-ish on long term impact big-ish on local market income generating, exclusive enough to create value over cost of excesive public miantanance issues.
Global Cave Rescue teams could have anual bookings for seminars etc. the helicopter pad purpose built for all weather would  be quite an asset(independant pole landing pad with floating gangway to transit/debus pole house(like a cross between a open plan (wet floor capable)studio apartment & a comercial production kitchen with sound dampened bunk beds for 10 or soo open plan flooring in main debus storage to sleep 10 more over night) etc...

right beside a purpose built pole resort hotel spa retreat.
spa retreat all year around income
hotel = kitchen/ food/ styled to allow guests as paying adult students to learn from a chef on special cooking


main accomadation wing to house no more than roughly 50 rooms with 10 high end rooms 20 double honey-moon style breakable to twin share and 20 lower end to give access to lower income market to give balanced turnover and constant income.

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Good news is that reports say that four more boys have been successfully extracted from the cave by the divers. That brings the total to eight.

Bad news is that rains are causing conditions to worsen and some reports say that the rescue has been "suspended" temporarily. They aren't giving up and still say that they hope that they will have everyone out by tomorrow.

It's starting to sound like a mob scene above the cave, with cave rescuers from all around the world along with hordes of journalists and TV cameras. We all know how they love to shove and shout.

The double edged sword of this type of media is that you simply can not go out and purchase that type of positive public media attention.
regardles of how much money you have.
only possible examples would be hollywood block buster kids movies that cost several hundred million to produce.

meanwhile, its hard to expect specialists who are pushing the boundaries(where life and death is being balanced on their specialist skills) to do their best work with TV cameras shoved up every orrifice.

[Yazata]

Elon Musk has arrived at the cave with his little submarine pod.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=tws...r%5Eauthor

[Yazata]

They are preparing to go in again and try to rescue the remaining five. (Four boys and the coach it sounds like.) The rain had held off, but it's raining heavily now. The trip in and then out takes many hours, so we won't know whether they were successful for some time.

BBC points out that most likely there are more than the five in there. There are probably some Thai Navy Seals in there with them. They have to swim put too.

When they come out, they all are going to the hospital. According to today's Wall Street Journal, besides not eating for ten days, one concern is fungal diseases that people can get from long exposure in caves. So everyone has to be checked and if necessary treated for that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoplasmosis

[RainbowUnicorn]

ALL OUT !

All 12 members of a Thai youth football team and their coach have been brought safely out of the cave in northern Thailand

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/44755093