#ThaiCaveRescue: Mission in third day to extract remaining four members of football team and their coach from a cave in northern Thailand

All 12 boys and their coach out of flooded cave system, Thai navy Seals confirm

All 12 of the "Wild Boars" academy team and their 25-year-old coach have now been rescued from the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand, Thai Navy Seals confirm.

Four of the players and their coach have escaped on an extended operation on the third day of the rescue mission.

Final Wild Boar leaves the cave

An Australian doctor, who has been providing medical checks before the boys start their journey, and four Thai navy Seals are yet to come out of the caves.

The group were stuck in the cave since June 23 and under went a 4km long journey to escape.
The four boys and their coach who were rescued today are being taken to Chiang Rai Hospital for medical treatment.

Source -TheNation / nationmultimedia.com/

Two more Mu Pa footballers removed from Tham Luang cave Tuesday

Two more young footballers of Mu Pa Academy football club on Tuesday separately emerged from Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province on the day 3 of operation to remove the remaining four football players and their assistant coach.

Chief operation Narongsak Osottanakorn said earlier that the rescue authorities expected to remove all the stranded Mu Pa members from the cave today.

The operation that began on Sunday have already retrieved eight of the 13 Mu Pa members who got stuck in the cave since June 23.

The ninth boy emerged from the cave at 4pm while the tenth about 20 minutes later.

They received medical examinations at a field hospital erected near the cave.

They will follow the same pattern by boarding an ambulance to board helicopter to Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital.

The young Mu Pa Academy footballers, whose name have not been revealed, were taken by ambulance from the cave in Mae Sai district before boarding a chopper to Chiangrai Prachanukraw hospital in Muang district. They became the second and the third to come out of the cave on day two of the operation to evacuate the footballers and their assistant coach from the cave, where they were stranded 15 days ago. On Monday, four of his team members were separately extracted from the cave and are receiving treatment at the hospital.

Source - TheNation

#Thailand - Mission Day 3 begins to evacuate final five

Efforts resumed on Tuesday morning to evacuate the remaining five Mu Pa Academy football club members from Tham Luang Cave in the hope of bringing them all to safety within hours, the mission chief said.

Narongsak Osottanakorn told reporters the operation started at 10.08am with 19 divers assigned to extract four young footballers and their 25-year-old assistant coach, Ekkapon Chantawong.

He said they got an earlier start than on the previous two rescue days, Sunday and Monday, and felt confident in the experience gained.

Despite rain overnight, the water level inside the cave was similar to that of Monday, Narongsak said.

Also to be brought out on Tuesday were the physician and three Navy SEAL divers who had stayed with the remaining footballers on the Noen Nom Sao ledge where they’d been found stranded.

Flash flooding trapped the group in the cave on June 23, sparking a multinational rescue mission that had to overcome numerous difficulties, including strong currents of murky water submerging sections of the cave.

A pair of British cave divers found them on July 2, alive but exha

usted on a sandy ledge above the water level.

Their state of health posed a further challenge to the rescue effort, as did the surging water levels and rough subterranean terrain.

Narongsak decided on Sunday to launch the rescue operation after being assured the water had receded and the boys’ health was improving thanks to nourishment given them by the SEALs team.

Narongsak said two of the boys evacuated on Sunday emerged with lung infections, but their condition was improving with doses of antibiotics.

The eight boys undergoing treatment at Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital were in general good health, both physically and mentally, he said.

One of them has low body temperature after spending days in the cold cave but is also improving.

Source - TheNation

Thailand - First two footballers exit cave, getting medical check-up: military source

An ambulance that is believed to carry the first boy rescued from Tham Luang Cave in Chiang Rai leaves the cave for a hospital

The first two trapped footballers have been safely evacuated out of Tham Luang cave, a military news source has confirmed.

 

The Royal Thai Airforce’s Facebook fanpage “Air Force Media by Kawin AFU” disclosed the good news that two unidentified survivors were successfully brought out of the cave on around 6.10pm, while another survivor had already reached the Navy SEALs’ operation base on the third chamber of the cave.

The two survivors have already been transferred to the field hospital just outside the cave entrance for a medical check-up before being transported by separate ambulances to Chiang Rai Prachanukraw Hospital, the source said. 

An evacuation operation to bring out the 13 footballers in the flooded cave kicked off on Sunday morning, with expectations that the first survivor would exit the front of the cave at around 9pm on Sunday evening.

It normally takes the Navy SEAL divers six hours to travel each way to bring supplies to the trapped footballers.

Source - The Nation 
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Thailand - World media moved back from cave as evacuation begins

Foreign media members on Sunday said they accepted an order by Thai authorities to move out of area outside the Tham Luang cave as evacuation of the footballers begins.

Foreign media are being evacuated four kilometres from the cave to ensure clear access. Journalists will be housed at the Tambon Pong Pha Administrative Organisation Office on Phaholyothin Road.

 The 12 teens and their football coach assistant have been trapped in the flooded cave since June 23, with experts from international allies joining with Thais to rescue the team in a race against water and time.

Local and international media have converged at the cave to keep the world up-to-date with the latest developments. 

Six days after the footballers were found safe deep in the cave network last Monday, authorities on Sunday launched the evacuation operation to bring them out.

Spanish television reporter Biel Calderon said he didn't mind the request that media move out of the way of officials and rescuers during the high-risk extraction.

Calderon agreed that a large group of media could harm the efficiency of the rescue operation and cause delays. He said he understood that there were reasons for such a request in the life-and-death situation and media needed to respect it.

 Russian TV reporter Andrey Pashin, who had been covering the story for the past four days from the cave entrance, said he felt positive about the authorities regulating the large number of media in the vicinity to ensure the rescuers are not blocked.

He hoped that, without a continuing media presence in the area, officials could work more efficiently and more quickly rescue the trapped youths.

 Pashin said he wasn't much worried much getting film for his news coverage, because he believed that officials were working to address the issue. He hoped that the Thai authorities would ensure all media have equal access to information and pictures and that any news and images obtained by journalists would be pooled and shared among all other media workers.

The Thai authorities on Saturday began limiting the media’s access at the front of the cave, but some journalists had ventured under the rope fence to report the news.

This led to an official order being issued at 7am on Sunday to reclaim the area outside cave. Media members, along with volunteers and officials not vital to the rescue efforts, were to be cleared from and kept way from the area by 9am.

Many reporters negotiated to remain, while others moved as ordered to crowd the Tambon Pong Pha Administrative Organisation Office area.

Source - TheNation 

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Thaiand - Rescue bid tipped over next few days

Leaders of the rescue effort at Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai are considering whether it will be practical to bring out the 12 trapped young footballers and their coach from the flooded cave over the next few days. 

It would be "favourable" to stage an evacuation before fresh rain and a possible rise in carbon dioxide sets in, according to former Chiang Rai governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn who has been put in charge of the rescue operation. 

 "Now, water in the cave is down to satisfactory levels and the weather is fine. The boys' health has begun to improve and they have now learned the basics of diving," said Mr Narongsak, who is now Phayao governor.

"In the next two or three days, the conditions may be perfect to carry out the rescue plan,'' he told reporters yesterday afternoon. 

 The main concern is now the level of oxygen in the cave, Mr Narongsak said, adding that more clean air has been fed into the cave and more oxygen tanks have been brought in.
The number of rescuers operating in the cave complex will now be kept to a minimum to preserve oxygen and prevent a possible increase in carbon dioxide, Mr Narongsak said.
However, at least four rescuers will be sent in to look after the 12 boys and their coach who are sheltering on the ledge called Nern Nom Sao, he said.
Mr Narongsak added that two more British cave diving experts have arrived in Chiang Rai to support the rescue bid and another two from Britain will come today.

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