It's gonna be a long day for sure but now we know they can in fact make it. Great news.

Fox reports 6 kids recued.

Great news to wake up to. Not out of the woods, er cave, yet even for the two rescues so far. At least one report that, influenced by doctors' assessments, it was the weakest of the victims that were evac'd first, not the strongest, which you might expect in a single-file extraction with the possibility of obstructing the exit route should something happen. That suggests that the condition of the boys is weaker than has been released, imposing a much tighter time constraint. Also, authorities seem noticeably tight-lipped about the specific condition of the two who have been already heli-vac'd out.

Latest update is that now 6 of the lads have walked out. Will be interesting to find out just how much diving was actually needed, in light of reports that much of the route has become walkable due to significant dropping of the water levels (more rain is due today, however).

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/...-operation-1.4738333

Six boys have exited a flooded cave in northern Thailand where they have been trapped for more than two weeks, a senior member of rescue operation's medical team said on Sunday.


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Thai Navy SEAL Facebook says 4 boys out

https://www.facebook.com/ThaiSEAL/

The 4th wild boar is out of the cave.

There is a team of 13 international cave diving experts and five Thai Navy SEALs

in addition to the Thai team, the rescuers were from the US, Australia, China and Europe.

To reach the boys, divers must navigate a series of dark, flooded tunnels for up to six hours. With the entire round trip taking roughly 11 hours to complete

Fox is backing off on that report of six boys out. They are now saying that at least four boys have been rescued.

Bottom line is it's working so far so keep your prayers coming.

If you want a good source to follow, go here:

https://twitter.com/hodgeamanda/with_replies

She's an Australian reporter on the scene and correctly broke the story that the rescue was underway last night in the Australian media. She's doing some live feeds from the scene and posting regular updates. The confirmed number out so far is 4.

if there are 18 divers, and they use 2 divers per boy, some of those divers will make the 11 hour round trip twice

Speculating:
It is also possible that if there are locations where the cave is dry, they might have divers hand off to other divers.

I haven't seen it mentioned or confirmed previously, but US divers are in the water assisting with the rescue.

Winning!! So far so good. Keep the faith!

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
Speculating:
It is also possible that if there are locations where the cave is dry, they might have divers hand off to other divers.

This is what I would speculate as well. I would HOPE the plan including "staging areas" so that one diver wouldn't have to make the ENTIRE round trip. Again, I'm sure those with the required talent thought this through many times.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
if there are 18 divers, and they use 2 divers per boy, some of those divers will make the 11 hour round trip twice

Speculating:
It is also possible that if there are locations where the cave is dry, they might have divers hand off to other divers.

There are large sections where they are having to climb and crawl. The longest section under water is about 1 km.



Also, the 4 boys are safe and the next operation to free more will begin in 10-12 hours.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
if there are 18 divers, and they use 2 divers per boy, some of those divers will make the 11 hour round trip twice

Speculating:
It is also possible that if there are locations where the cave is dry, they might have divers hand off to other divers.

Yes. There are 13 international divers, and 5 Thai SEALs, suggesting that each of the boys and coach each have a dedicated swim buddy, with the 5 SEALs stationed at the various checkpoints and escorting each duo through their assigned segment.

From the blog linked on page 12 of the yhread:

"Four boys confirmed rescued with another operation planned in 10 hours
“Our operation was more successful than we expected,” Narongsak Osatanakorn, the head of the joint command centre coordinating the rescue, said at a press briefing on Sunday.

The boys travelled 1km underwater with the first coming out at 5:40pm local time.

The operation chief, Narongsak Osottanakorn, says four out of the 12 boys have so far been rescued and were taken straight to hospital.

Rescue workers now need 10 hours to prepare for the next stage of this remarkable operation."


It sounds like the pulled 4 kids and now need time to rest and stage supplies before attempting to pull more.

From what I’ve heard there are dry sections between the full submerged sections.

It would make sense to have dive teams take the kids though a wet section and hand them off to a team that moves them through the dry section and hand them off to another dive team for the next wet section.

This keeps the dive teams from expanding extra energy moving through dry sections. Also the dive teams can learn that smaller section better to move through.

quote:

Originally posted by TXJIM:
...and now need time to rest and stage supplies before attempting to pull more.

And perhaps improve on the plan based on the success up to this point and reassess "threat and error management". GREAT NEWS SO FAR!!!!

Cautiously optimistic so far, glad to hear they have some of them out.

quote:

From what I’ve heard there are dry sections between the full submerged sections.

Some of the dry sections have very low oxygen levels.

A diving question: When I dive to the bottom of the lap pool, 10' or so, and as a kid at the YMCA, 12' at the deep end, my eardrums would be in pain. Is the pressure different if you are breathing bottled air? I note the 16' deep passage, and wondered how they'd get the kids to keep up.

After seeing the topography of the area, it looks like an outflow bore could be drilled to prevent future tragedy.

Let's hope the rain doesn't last long.

Hopefully it will turn out ok. Maybe these kids aren't quite the snowflakes the MSM has been portraying, and handwringing over.

I’ve never been to Thailand. Or Asia, either, for that matter. My impression is that maybe life is a bit tougher than suburban USA.

Those kids were soccer players, maybe a bit better shape than many, and Heaven Forbid, they might have had to walk to practices, and endure other inconveniences unknown and inconceivable to breathless MSM journo-babes in the US.

The boys probably do not appreciate the total situation and may think this to be a grand adventure, especially if the adults don’t over exaggerate the dangers.

This is really good news considering the conditions!