MEDIA BRIEFING NOTE – 10 July 2018
A tense but joyful outcome for the cave rescue
Update for teams and media compiled 23:10h BST, Tuesday 10 July 2018
At 15:30h (21:30h Thai time) today, the Thai authorities in charge of rescue operations at Tham Luang Nang Non cave announced that the last four members of the Wild Boars football team, their coach and all cave divers were safely out of the cave after a final rescue operation that had started at 04:00h (10:00h Thai time). After they were brought out, the boys were taken by ambulance to hospital for health checks and to begin their recovery.
Today’s operation was almost a repeat of the rescues carried out yesterday and on Sunday when four boys were brought out each day. Today the total number rescued was five.
The spearhead group of cave divers each day were four British and two Australians – one of whom was a doctor. After examination by the doctor the boys were kitted out with wetsuits and diving equipment and then each was dived out by one of the British divers passing support divers strategically placed at intervals on the way. After all the boys had left the chamber where they had been for a fortnight the four Thai navy SEAL divers who had been with them since shortly after they had been found also began their own dives out.
This concludes one of the most incredible cave rescues ever.
BCRC does not normally get involved directly in rescue operations. That is the task of its member teams. This however was a unique occasion when individual cave divers and cave rescuers representing many teams collected together and worked as a truly national team under the BCRC banner. In total eight cave divers and three other cave rescuers travelled out to Thailand to help effect the rescue. They were backed up by a support team in the UK of BCRC officers themselves ably supported by further members from many teams. It has been both gratifying and humbling how the cave rescue world, cave divers and the wider caving world have come together during the past fortnight to help the Thais and others from many nationalities pull off what many believed to be an impossible task.
Our thanks from the cave rescue community is also due to many equipment suppliers, employers and non-caving friends who have supported the rescue effort and to civil servants at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office both in the UK and the British Embassy in Bangkok who have helped in so many ways.
Finally we send our best wishes to the boys and coach of the Wild Boars Football team and their families for a swift recovery from their ordeal.
Point of contact:
Please direct any enquiries about the cave rescue operation to: comms@caverescue.org.uk or visit BCRC on the newly created FaceBook page (www.facebook.com/BritishCaveRescueCouncil/).
Briefing prepared by BCRC Officers, 10 July 2018.