Editorial: World wills cave rescue to succeed

A Thai Buddhist monk prays for the boys and their football coach, found alive after days trapped in a flooded underground cave system. Photo / AP

Sometimes news unites the world. People everywhere have been anxiously following the fate of a dozen Thai boys and their football coach trapped in an underground cave.

Until last weekend the story looked like a tragedy. The young football team had ventured into the underground passageways the previous weekend, just before heavy rain flooded the area.

As the days passed and the rain continued, divers got as far as 3km into the system before being driven back by the rush of water through a narrow section of the passage. It hardly seemed possible that the boys could be alive.

Now that all 13 have been found on a high and dry ledge where they had taken refuge from the rising water, the world's attention is no less focused on their fate, possibly more so. For those lads, aged 11 to 16, and their coach, 25, face a challenge that would test people of any age. None are divers accustomed to breathing equipment, yet they will probably have to learn the techniques if the divers who have reached them can bring them out.

Other options are being explored. Pumps are still trying to lower the water level, a search continues for other cave entrances that might be connected to the chamber where the boys are huddled, perhaps it would be possible to drill a shaft to them, or perhaps they can be kept nourished where they are until the rainy season ends in October. None of those sound realistic.

The divers have rigged guide ropes through the passages of murky water and placed air tanks along the route. There is only one way out. And there is no hurry. The trapped can be supplied with all the food, medicine, lighting and communications they might need. Their only need that cannot be supplied from the world outside is mental fortitude.

The expert rescue divers now with them will be doing their utmost to make the boys relaxed at the idea of a long journey under water. If this is a typical bunch of early teens, some will be keen to have a go, others definitely not. Those not confident in water will be battling terror. The keen ones will probably be given plenty of practice, because they will need it and because watching them should lesson the fears of the rest.

They were a team when they went into the cave system and are probably a closer team now. For nearly 10 days they huddled together in darkness and silence deep underground. They would have lost track of time, sleeping fitfully, drinking water dripping from the roof of the cavern, growing more hungry and worrying they might not get out.

Compared to that worry, the ordeal they now face must seem manageable. For their families outside too, the relief that their sons have been found alive appears to eclipse any worry about how the boys will get out. Only the rescuers know how hard and risky it will be to see that the boys do not panic when they find themselves squeezing through narrow confines where the water flow is overwhelming.

Will they all come through? They have done so well together so far, they can surely give their adventure a happy ending.