Thai cave rescue operation begins

The extraction begins today. Best hopes go with them. It won't be easy.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44755452

They've already got the first four out. Hopefully the rest will be out soon.

I used to scuba dive quite a bit back in my youth, and it can be a challenging endeavour at the best of times. Teaching thirteen folks how to do it because their lives depend on it sounds like a logistical nightmare to me, and I can only wish them the very best of luck. Scuba diving is one of those activities that if you forget something briefly say, holding your breath when you shouldn't (while ascending, for instance), you aren't just in trouble. You are likely dead. There isn't much of a margin for errors, let alone repeated mistakes.

They're all out safely. Amazing work by all involved, and great international cooperation. Wonderful to see.

Thoughts are with the family of the lost diver, and I hope the teacher doesn't suffer with too much guilt, even if he made a mistake.

The teacher already (before) sent a message with apologies to families and everyone - the reply he got was they don't blame him for anything as it's not his fault.

Accidents happen. Nature has it's whims.
Remember, the teacher was with kids for more than a week till they found them, imagine yourself in those shoes. Would you be able to keep 12 kids safe and not going loco? And not die.

I'm pretty sure in some countries he'd have been burnt on stake even before the group was found. I don't want to visit those countries. Ever.

This is amazing news and glad everyone is safe apart from that diver who lost his life. Reset in peace. With constant negativity on the news media one tend to loose all hope for humanity but event like this show there are still people out there who will go out of their way and risk their own life to help others.

Now I want to know exactly how they did it! There seems to be lot of talk but no official explanation as to how they got them out. Did they reach those kids to dive? Also how did the kids survive for 9 days before being found? Did they had enough food? I will drop dead id i didn't eat for couple of days!

From what I read, it looks like they simply guided/ferried the trapped people out, which is way more ideal than trying to teach thirteen people how to scuba dive in a week or less. Getting them all out alive is a huge win in my book, other than the diver who passed away last week, it was a best case scenario for such a rescue that was fraught with peril.

You'd be pretty miserable, but you probably wouldn't drop dead without food for 9 days. Could be enough to kill some people, but a healthy person could potentially go for weeks without food. I assume the cave water was drinkable, or they'd be in a more dire state.

Give it six months and there will be like, a dozen or so flicks made about it, just wait and see. We'll know all!

Originally Posted by Ripper
You'd be pretty miserable, but you probably wouldn't drop dead without food for 9 days. Could be enough to kill some people, but a healthy person could potentially go for weeks without food. I assume the cave water was drinkable, or they'd be in a more dire state.

Not only the whole thing had worldwide media coverage where people were finally united (except a few degenerates I wrote a post about in P&R), it shows exactly why all those "realistic" survival videogames stink.

Water is the most important resource a person needs. Food is not even among the 5 most important things to come by first - yet all those games prioritize finding stupid food who cares about water. But what else to expect from stupifying products where extinction never happens.
Here's hope this operation changes atrocious designs.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Give it six months and there will be like, a dozen or so flicks made about it, just wait and see. We'll know all!

I don't like dramas and I don't like based so called on true story but in fact fantasy that changes actual facts.
This one, regardless of changes, I'll watch.

Originally Posted by joxer
The teacher already (before) sent a message with apologies to families and everyone - the reply he got was they don't blame him for anything as it's not his fault.

Accidents happen. Nature has it's whims.
Remember, the teacher was with kids for more than a week till they found them, imagine yourself in those shoes. Would you be able to keep 12 kids safe and not going loco? And not die.

I'm pretty sure in some countries he'd have been burnt on stake even before the group was found. I don't want to visit those countries. Ever.

Well if it happened in north America or most commonwealth countries…. he would be sued, the government would be sued, the weatherman would be sued, the rescue team would be sued etc.

There is no such thing as an accident, there is only people we can hold responsible.

Trump somehow caused this… I know!

Ha, perfect example this morning.
Parents of accident victim suing manufacturer of charter bus. Claiming bus was not designed to withstand the accident with a semitruck.

Well no shit.
Two hunks of metal that weigh 15,000kgs each are not supposed to slam into each other at 100km/hr in opposing directions. Maybe we should sue physics for not being accommodating.
Yay for stupid lawsuits.

Originally Posted by Darth Tagnan
Trump somehow caused this… I know!

Well the Thailand united the boys with their family

Originally Posted by joxer

Water is the most important resource a person needs.

Close, but shelter is first. Exposure will kill you faster than thirst.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
I used to scuba dive quite a bit back in my youth, and it can be a challenging endeavour at the best of times.

I've done a bit of diving myself. I once made a mistake at 90 feet, and let me tell you, that will get your attention.

But, like you said in a later post, they mostly led them out of the long passage into the cave. I heard they only briefly and periodically needed to use tanks and masks to get through certain parts. I understand all their water pumping and a break in the rain paid off.

Originally Posted by Ripper
They're all out safely. Amazing work by all involved, and great international cooperation. Wonderful to see.

And a handful of Brit divers I understand were key. I heard one diver interviewed say that only 5 percent of all divers are cave divers, which, as you might imagine, is much more dangerous. And, he said, they had the best 2 percent of cave divers there for the rescue.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Thoughts are with the family of the lost diver, and I hope the teacher doesn't suffer with too much guilt, even if he made a mistake.

Yes. I heard parents and kids were passing written messages with the food and supplies being sent in. Some parents wrote how they forgave the coach and simply asked for him to take care of the kids while they were still inside -- something else that might not happen here in the U.S.

All of them are out! YAY! What is the fuss going on with Elon Musk trying to help while a lot of people are criticizing lol. He attempted something though.

Originally Posted by deltaminds
All of them are out! YAY! What is the fuss going on with Elon Musk trying to help while a lot of people are criticizing lol. He attempted something though.

Eh, i can understand it somewhat, but like you said he did something at least.

Some people are upset he made a rather big deal out of it, making sure everyone knew about it.. So while he was helping it was also a way to make himself look good. It only really works when you're not too obvious about it.

EM was asked to help, not the other way around. The fuss mostly comes from far left "journalism" sites run primarily from click-bait. Anything negative or positive that is Musk related will make them good money. These are the journalism sites that write multiple articles about how they're sick of hearing about people only offering "thoughts and prayers" then actually doing something, then turn around and get pissed off when people actually do something (yep i'm looking at you, Gawker).

Besides, the ones who don't get it, aren't engineers. A good engineer is obsessed with solving problems (and i'm pretty sure most engineers on this site would agree).

two divers died

Originally Posted by Carnifex
From what I read, it looks like they simply guided/ferried the trapped people out, which is way more ideal than trying to teach thirteen people how to scuba dive in a week or less. Getting them all out alive is a huge win in my book, other than the diver who passed away last week, it was a best case scenario for such a rescue that was fraught with peril.