The world has found new heroes. In the tough geopolitical times, it was a rare moment when the international community took a collective sigh of relief as all 13 members of the Wild Boars football team were pulled out from a flooded cave in Thailand ending a three-week ordeal.

Two things distinctly stood out in the complex rescue operations. First is the international assistance cobbled together to bring divers, doctors and experts from all over the world to help the 12 stranded young boys and their coach. Second is the rescuers and their nonchalant conduct as they played down personal heroism showing remarkable team spirit.

“We are not heroes. What we do is very calculating, very calm.

It is quite the opposite,” John Volanthen, one of the British divers involved in the rescue was quoted as saying.

Volanthen’s unassuming summarising of the danger-ridden complex rescue operation masks the enormity of the task accomplished by him and the fellow divers. Such was the danger to the lives of rescuers themselves that former Thai navy seal Samarn Poonan died while laying oxygen tanks in the cave.

Australian anesthetist and diver Dr Richard Harris, who was part of the rescue te­am, overcame his personal grief of losing his father wh­ile trying to save the children said the big heroes were the 12 boys who held their ne­rves inside the cave for so many days and the Thai navy seals who ensured the football team was kept alive.

The faint echo of Wild Boar rescue might be felt in Russia where 118 sailors died in Kursk submarine tragedy in the icy Barents sea in August 2000. Russian president Vladimir Putin delayed accepting international assistance and when the foreign rescuers managed to break into the submarine, they found no survivors.

It is difficult to draw parallels between the Wild Board mishap involving the civilians and the military submarine tragedy but the underlining humanitarian aspect cannot be missed. It remains debatable, however, if the Russian sailors had survived at all to be rescued.

Salvaging is an extremely specialised and complex operation. Those who are part of these activities are domain specialists. Four years ago, Indian navy’s stricken submarine Sindhurakshak that had got sunk in Mumbai harbour after explosions killing 18 crew members was salvaged with foreign assistance.

What stood Wild Boars rescue apart was lives of 13 people and the race against time for the rescuers to plan and execute the operation.

A glance at the profiles of the divers who took part in the operations shows their commitment to the task as many of them were merely hobbyists. Volanthen, who was the first to reach the boys after nine days, is an IT consultant but is described by the Economist as among the world’s most revered spelunkers.

“They (Volanthen and fellow diver Rick Stanton) hold the record for the farthest dive into a cave and have been summoned for rescued in France, Norway and Mexico. Their team in south Wales is one of 15 that comprises the British Cave Rescue Council (BCRC), which was called in when Thailand’s navy realised it would need help to locate the boys within a cave system that is 10 km long,” wrote the Economist.

Volanthen and Stanton were accompanied by another diver Robert Harper.

The other members of the rescue team include Pak Lohaarnshoon, a doctor and a Belgian diver Ben Reymenants, who was first to find the boys trapped. Claus Rasmussen, a Danish , who was working in a Thai diving school was also sent an SoS call to be part of the rescue team and so was Finnish national Mikko Paasi of the Thai diving school. Their focus was technical diving. Erik Brown from Vancouver was also part of the rescue team. He runs Team Blue Immersion technical diving school in Egypt. The small global community of divers who thrive in exploring secrets of the sea delivered the biggest gift to the people of saving 13 lives.

gautam.datt@mydigitalfc.com