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Soe Zeya Tun | Reuters
Soldiers and rescue workers walk past water pumped out of Tham Luang cave complex, where members of an under-16 soccer team and their coach have been found alive, in the northern province of Chiang Rai, Thailand, July 5, 2018.
The death of a former Thai Navy SEAL working in the flooded cave on Friday has shaken the rescue mission, and forecasts for more rain could undermine the draining of the cave, forcing officials to consider other options.
Thanes’ engineers are working with the army to explore an area they believe to be the back end of the cave, chiselling away fragile limestone rocks that he said could be just hundreds of meters from where the boys are trapped.
“Originally we were exploring it as a way to bring supplies to the children from the back end of the cave, but now it could become more,” said Thanes.
Chalongchai Chaiyakum, a senior Thai army officer, said that one team traveled some 300 meters down a shaft on the hill on Thursday until they reached a dead end.
He said that up to 200 people are exploring the hill to try to find a workable shaft.
Musk offers help
The muddy bank where the boys are stranded is some 4 km (2.5 miles) from the front entrance of the cave, with sections of the final 1.7-km stretch completely underwater.
Drilling down raises concerns that parts of the cave could collapse on the boys. Efforts to widen diving channels, have raised similar fears about blocking narrow passageways and hemming the team in.
Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that engineers from his firms—SpaceX and The Boring Company—were heading to Thailand to see if they could assist the rescue.
The firms have “advance ground penetrating radar” that is “pretty good at digging holes” or technology that could “create an air tunnel underwater” for the children to traverse, Musk said earlier.
The Thai government said Musk’s team could help the rescue operation with location tracking, water pumping or battery power.
Relatives of the boys, some of whom have camped at the site for weeks, say all they want is the safest exit for their children.
“I’m worried…he has never dived,” said Somboon Kaewwongwan, the father of a 16-year-old boy trapped in the cave.
