A week after rescue divers emerged in a dark and flooded cave to discover that -- against all odds -- a missing team of Thai soccer players had somehow managed to survive 10 days of isolation, their rescue continued Monday with rapidity.
A day after the first four were guided to freedom along a tortuous underwater course, rescuers pulled four more team members from a flooded cave complex in Thailand on Monday in a daring rescue that brought to eight the number rescued so far.
Five members of the group, including the team's 25-year-old coach, remained in the cavern where they took refuge from rising water. Narongsak Osottanakorn, who is overseeing the search-and-rescue operation, said he hoped that they could all be rescued today.
Rescuers were poised late Monday for the next day's push in the painstaking, dangerous mission to free the remaining five, 17 nights after their group disappeared. The rescue operation has to be paused between missions so the divers can replace compressed-air tanks and guide ropes.
The four survivors rescued Monday have all been hospitalized in Chiang Rai, the nearest large city and provincial capital, Narongsak said.
"All of them are safe and conscious," he said.
Those rescues bring the total to eight after two days of pulling team members from the cave. The 12 players of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach were trapped in the flooded cave complex on June 23.
A message on the Thai navy SEALs Facebook page said, "2 days, 8 Boars."
Officials have declined to identify any of the people who have been rescued or those who remain in the cave.
Officials lavished praise on the Thai and international divers who, in pairs of two, executed the dangerous rescue mission, guiding the boys, who could barely swim and had no diving experience, through a treacherous 2½-mile escape route that twisted and turned through the cavern.
To get the boys through the miles of submerged passages, they were each tethered to a diver, with another positioned behind him. Each one was fitted with a face mask connected to a compressed-air tank. At especially narrow parts of the cave, the tanks had to be released from their backs and rolled through.
One good sign for the next stage of the operation is that the pace of the rescue was considerably quicker on the second day. On Sunday, it took 11 hours to carry out four people. But on Monday, it took only nine hours to bring out the next four, Narongsak said.
He said that was in part because the divers had become more skilled in maneuvering through the cave's flooded passageways while holding the boys below them. It also helped that more than 100 people participated in the operation, more than on the first day, he said.
"We're more confident today. We worked faster. I'm so happy," he said. The boys rescued in the second group, he said, were healthier than the first.
Narongsak said he was optimistic about the chances of rescuing all of the remaining five today.
"We think we will do it better and the success will be 100 percent," he said.
Narongsak said that the plan is "designed for rescuing four at a time." He said he was not sure whether preparations could be adjusted to rescue the last five in quick succession -- raising the possibility that one would be left there by himself, enduring a grueling wait while rescue efforts restart.
One wrong move, however, could prove deadly for anyone involved in the rescue operation. One veteran diver, a former member of the Thai navy SEALs, lost consciousness and died early Friday after placing spare air tanks along the route.
Officials said that a new weir, or low dam, built outside the cave was helping to keep water levels relatively stable inside. After a day of torrential downpours Sunday, things cleared up Monday. But heavy rains lashed the region later Monday, and a steady downpour continued today.
Officials also were concerned by falling oxygen levels in the chamber where the boys sought refuge.
The chances of monsoon rains sending torrents of water into the cave and making the rescue effort too risky is never far from the minds of everyone involved in the operation.
Alluding to that worry, the regional army commander offered his thanks Monday to the rain god Phra Pirun, imploring him to "keep showing us mercy."
"Give us three more days and the Boars will come out to see the world, every one of them," Maj-Gen. Bancha Duriyapan said at a news conference punctuated by applause from the dozens of Thai and foreign journalists and others in attendance.
"I beg Phra Pirun because the Meteorological Department said that from Monday on there will be continuous rain," Bancha said. "If I ask too much, he might not provide it. So I've been asking for three days."
Rescuing the remaining four boys and their coach could take more than one operation, Narongsak warned.
All preparations, including replacing the oxygen cylinders positioned along the route out in the cave, take at least 20 hours, he said. The safety of the divers, who have meticulously planned the mission, is also paramount.
FEAR OF INFECTION
The eight rescued boys were recuperating in a hospital from their ordeal, in which they had huddled together on a tiny patch of higher ground where they had sought refuge after a rainstorm flooded the enormous Tham Luan Nang Non cave complex as they were exploring it after soccer practice on June 23. Their families were being kept at a distance because of fears of infection.
Jedsada Chokdumrongsuk, permanent secretary at the Public Health Ministry, said today that two of the boys possibly have lung infections but that all eight are generally "healthy and smiling."
It could be at least seven days before they can be released from hospital, Jesada said at a news conference.
After their first night in the hospital, the boys rescued Sunday requested spicy basil pork, according to officials. Jesada said those four boys are now able to have normal food but can't eat anything spicy.
Mongkol Boonpiam, one of the boys who was listed among those who had been rescued on a Facebook messenger group used by some of the parents, was considered to have been the weakest of those trapped.
Jesada said the rescued boys were in "high spirits" and have strong immune systems.
Family members have seen at least some of the boys from behind a glass isolation barrier, and Jesada said doctors may let the boys walk around their beds today.
Thailand's prime minister and leader of the military junta, Prayuth Chan-ocha, visited rescuers and the boys' family members Monday at the muddy site where they have been camped since the team first disappeared. He also stopped by the hospital, where an entire floor has been reserved for the eight rescued boys and their teammates.
The plight of the boys, aged 11-16, and their coach, has riveted Thailand and much of the world -- from the heart-sinking news they were trapped to the first flickering video of the huddle of anxious yet smiling boys brought back by the pair of British divers who found them after penetrating deep into the sprawling cave.
"Heartened to see 4 more boys rescued from the Thai cave earlier today," Vice President Mike Pence said in a tweet Monday. "Praying for the 4 players & coach still in the cave. God bless them and the brave rescuers."
Their friends were full of optimism -- and worry.
Phuwadech Kamnguen, a 14-year-old best friend of one of the trapped boys, said he's looking forward to eating KFC with the team again.
"Even when my friends have left the cave, I'm worried about their physical well-being. From what I've seen in the clip, they did look skinny," he said.
For the first time in weeks, life was slowly starting to resume for those closest to the team, as crippling anxiety gave way to relief. The head coach of the team, Nopparat Khanthavong, said he felt hungry Sunday for the first time since the disappearance of his assistant coach and the boys.
"Before, I was just eating to eat," he said.
Away from the chaos of the press center, a few dozen fans gathered at a small soccer field behind a hotel to watch the older members of the soccer academy play their first game in two weeks.
"We are playing today because we want to send encouragement to those who are still stuck inside," Nopparat said. As the players, dressed in black jerseys, dribbled and passed the ball, news broke that the eighth boy had been freed from the cave. The team won 5-1.
Information for this article was contributed by Hannah Beech, Muktita Suhartono and Richard C. Paddock of The New York Times; by Kaweewit Kaewjinda and Stephen Wright of The Associated Press; and by Shibani Mahtani, Timothy McLaughlin and Panaporn Wutwanich of The Washington Post.
A Section on 07/10/2018