Divers in Thai rescue mission going home to ‘car full of beer’

A team of heroic divers who helped in the monumental effort to rescue 12 Thai boys and their football coach from a flooded cave in Chang Rai will be welcomed home with a “car full of beer”, according to the family of one British diver.

Credit: Thai Navy Seals

As reported by The Telegraph, seven British men were among those to have supported Thai Navy Seals in their efforts to save the boys and their coach, who yesterday were all confirmed to have been safely rescued from the cave and in hospital recovering after spending 17 days trapped in the flooded cave some 800m underground. 

British divers John Volanthen and Rick Stanton were the first to find the boys three miles inside the Tham Luang cave complex. Another British diver, Tim Acton, was called in to help after retired Thai Navy Seal Sgt. Major Saman Gunan, 38, lost his life during the rescue effort. The team also included British divers Robert Harper, Chris Jewell, Jason Mallison and Vernon Unsworth, who is from St Albans but now lives in Thailand, and who first called in the help of British divers.

The complicated rescue operation saw divers trace a treacherous three-hour route through the pitch back cave to reach the boys who had become stranded on a small ledge above rising flood waters. Some of the crevices traversed by the group were just 15 inches wide.

On Tuesday night, Mr Acton’s wife, Took, was waiting with other families and a “car full of beer” to celebrate their safe return after a mammoth effort, with each of the men diving up to four times a day in order to deliver supplies and oxygen to the stranded group, and ultimately bring them out safely.