{VIDEO} – British Divers Discuss Harrowing Tham Luang Rescue Mission

 

LONDON – Three of the British divers involved in the extraordinary rescue of 12 boys and their football coach who were trapped inside the flooded Tham Luang cave have revealed more details about the dangerous operation.

Rick Stanton, Jason Mallinson and Chris Jewell appeared on the This Morning show in the UK and discussed in detail what happened during the rescue mission.

“We knew it was going to be an extremely difficult and risky operation, with not a high probability of total success”, Mr Jewell told presenters Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes.

They also revealed that the boys were sedated to the point they were almost unconscious which allowed them to be evacuated from the cave without panic.

Richard Stanton who was one of the first divers to find the boys revealed how he first smelt the boys, adding “then they obviously heard us talking, and we saw our lights, and then they started coming down this slope one by one. They were kind of on this ramp around the corner,” he said.

“It was incredible. I wasn’t convinced that they were all going to be OK. But they were all OK,” he added.

Meanwhile, diver Jason Mallinson played down praise of the divers being heroes.

“We just did what we’re… not trained to do, but what we’ve experienced over the last 25 years – we’re happy that we can use that skill set to go and help people, he said.

In his only solo interview, British diver John Volanthen, who was the other diver along with Richard Stanton to find the group told the BBC just how “remarkable” the rescue was.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk has apologized for calling a British caver who helped rescue 12 Thai boys from a cave a “pedo”, retracting a comment that had drawn widespread outrage and briefly sent shares in Tesla tumbling.

Tesla CEO Musk issued the apology on Wednesday to Vernon Unsworth, who worked on the rescue of the “Wild Boars” football team and had ridiculed Musk’s plan to recover the trapped group using a miniature submarine.

“(H)is actions against me do not justify my actions against him, and for that I apologize to Mr. Unsworth and to the companies I represent as leader,” Musk wrote on Twitter. “The fault is mine and mine alone.”

Unsworth, who lives part of the year in Thailand, took part in the gargantuan 18-day effort to retrieve the 12 boys and their coach, a mission that ended on July 10 when the last five members were extracted.

Musk’s “pedo” tweet caused Tesla’s shares to fall Monday, although they have since recovered the losses.

Unsworth told AFP he may take legal action against Musk over the offensive tweet, which was sent to more than 20 million followers of the entrepreneur’s official account.

Source: The Nation, Thai Visa, AFP