Second Thai cave rescue operation under way to rescue trapped soccer team
A second dramatic rescue operation to save more members of the Thai soccer team trapped in the Tham Luang cave began on Monday, while anxious relatives endured another agonising day.
Sixteen days after the “Wild Boars” soccer team first went missing in the cave, the second rescue operation began at 11am local time (2pm AEST).
Fairfax Media has been told the operation aimed to extract another four members of the remaining nine members of the “Wild Boars” soccer team and their coach trapped in the cave.
Rescue mission chief Narongsak Osottanakorn, the former governor of the Chiang Rai province, would not say how many more of the trapped team would come out on Monday.
But in an upbeat assessment, he said “it’s perfect conditions like yesterday” and that “I expect in the next four to five hour we will have good news”.
“I confirmed the factors [affecting the mission] are as good as yesterday. We could start it five hours faster than we expected.”
Narongsak said Thai Authorities were considering allowing the parents of the four boys who had already been rescued visit them outside a transparent glass room.
The boys, he added, had asked to eat padkrapao, a chicken dish with sweet basil.
Some of the 18 divers who participated in the first rescue mission on Sunday would be swapped out and rested and replaced by others.
He would not provide the names of the first four boys who were rescued on Sunday, citing concern for the families, but he did say the “perfect ones, the most ready ones” were among the four who had been rescued - scotching suggestions that the weakest members of the team had come out first.
An official from Thailand’s Forestry Department said that despite heavy rains overnight on Sunday, “the water levels are still stable. Water is draining ok [from the cave]” and that operations to divert streams and pump ourt water from the cave were still under way.
In essence, the rescue plan aimed to repeat the success of the first attempt.
Thailand was united in celebrating the successful rescue of the first four boys, but the fate of the remaining nine hung in the balance throughout Monday.
Thai Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda said earlier in the day that before the operation — which will take the divers 3.2 kilometres into the cave and through perilous conditions — got under way, air tanks would have to be replenished and replaced along the route.
He had also suggested the second rescue attempt would involve the same crack team of five Thai navy SEALs, along with 13 international “all-star” divers.
Ambulances and a helicopter were seen buzzing around in the vicinity of the cave complex, ready to to spirit the four boys to a hospital in nearby Chiang Rai.
A huge support team of up to 90 people were expected to be involved in supporting the operation.
In a boost to the rescue effort, heavy rains mostly held off on Monday. Thai authorities have repeatedly warned that monsoon rains could rapidly reverse the huge effort that has seen more than 100 million litres of water pumped out of the cave to clear the way for rescuers and smooth the path for the boys.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha was due to arrive in the Chiang Rai region, where the cave is located, at about 4pm local time to oversee the rescue effort and speak with the families of the trapped boys and their coach.
Earlier, Thongchai Lertwilairattanapong, a Ministry of Health doctor at the hospital where the first four boys rescued were being treated, said on Monday that they had not yet seen their families.
He said that reunion would be delayed by 24 hours because of the need to perform exhaustive health checks and that after that, if all the tests were negative, then family could visit.
The identity of the four boys has not been publicly confirmed but Fairfax Media understands that 14-year-old Mongkol "Mark" Boonpiam was the first boy rescued.
Other media outlets have reported that Prajak "Note" Sutham, 14, Nattawut "Tle" Takamsai, 14 and Pipat Bodhi, 15, were the other three boys who had been rescued.
Australian doctor Richard Harris, an expert diver who was requested by the private British divers in the "all-star" team, and another Australian expert diver were expected to once again join the rescue mission.
Six Australian federal police divers and an Australian Navy diver will also be involved, working with Chinese and American teams, to bring supplies to the third chamber in the cave, which is the launching off point for
the rescue.
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said her expectation was that four more boys would be rescued on Monday.
"If we are asked to send more of course we will, but we are part of an international response group working under the guidance of the Thai government and the Thai navy," Ms Bishop said.