Not only the whole of Thailand followed this operation to save the children, they watched the whole world. And after the news of its completion, everyone sighed with relief. The worst was left behind.
On June 23, the football junior team led by the coach after the training went to the cave, where there were more than once. This cave with all the branches and the temple complex inside is a local attraction. At the entrance to it, the boys collected pies, chips, sweets and soda to celebrate the birthday of one of them. Then all this food will be shared on all 10 days. 25-year-old coach will give the boys everything, so suffer during a multi-day hunger strike stronger than their wards.
After a few days the rains should begin, then the entrance to the cave is closed. But the rains began earlier, when the guys retired a few kilometers from the entrance. Employees of the national park, who discovered the equipment left by the boys at the entrance to the cave, after walking 3 kilometers, returned. It was impossible to go further.
After learning about the trouble in Thailand, divers from different countries came, but only on July 2 the guys were able to find the British who knew these caves well. They found them on the ledge in the cave. It's good that none of them fell in the dark down, where it would be picked up and carried away by water. The Belgian diver noted that the guys were holding near the coach, there was no panic.
The passage to the cell where the children were found was filled with water and dirt in places, in total the filled siphons were 2 kilometers. In the cave to the depleted children were delivered food, water, blankets, oxygen. They were reached not only by divers, but also by doctors. And there was not much time left, the rains intensified, the water threatened to flood the caves, and the likelihood of collapsing wet ground appeared. 13 foreign divers almost without rest put on air tanks for evacuation, so as not to repeat the tragedy - at the beginning of the rescue operation an experienced diver, a 38-year-old Thai Navy officer Samarn Kunan, ended the oxygen. He could not be saved.
I had to pump out the water, not only from the passage and the chambers on the way, but also from the reservoirs on the surface. Two put on 50 thousand cubic meters of water per day! This involved thousands of people. But this measure also made it possible to shorten the length of siphons only to 1200 meters. For the guys prepared inventory, they began to prepare for the evacuation. Growing up in the highlands children could not swim, it was another difficulty.
Caves and narrow passages were not just flooded with water, in places there was also a strong current. The children had to learn to breathe in the aqualungs and swim. Urgent expansion of the passage, because the diver in the equipment could not go anywhere. The way from the cave, where the guys were, until even a healthy diver left, took six hours. And the cyclone continued to flood the north of the country, new difficulties could arise. It was impossible to delay.