12 boys lost in flooded Thai cave

[MaxE]

Chiang Mai CityNews - Rescue Updates: Teenager Football Team Found Alive in Cave

“Saturday 7th July 2018
BREAKING NEWS: Rescue Teams are opening air tanks inside the chamber the 13 boys are located to prevent them from suffocating in the cave, according to the former Chiang Mai Governor Narongsak Osottanakorn in an emergency press release at 1am Saturday morning. The former governor has now returned to Chiang Mai to manage the rescue operation until it is concluded. He has said that the condition has stabilised for now but that exiting by swimming and scuba diving out is still the most viable option despite the dangers involved.”

I guess the 25 years old coach is the 13th boy

And they use the right word of “air” instead of “oxygen”

My quess if they are taking the risk to haul tanks into the chamber the kids are in and then opening them to increase the chambers o2% that they are not filled with 21%. My money is on pure o2, so once again they got it wrong and the rescuers are opening oxygen tanks.

 

[Skittl1321]

I was thinking of one of those handheld oxygen analyzers like we use to check %O2 in Nitrox tank before we use it, something like this, below:

View attachment 467917

I meant that, just getting a diver from outside to inside is difficult. It is not an easy cave. So even taking something tiny is still an undertaking.

I hope they figure this out.

 

[Dan]

This video footage gives us a good perspective of what those heroes are doing inside the cave:

 

[DandyDon]

My quess if they are taking the risk to haul tanks into the chamber the kids are in and then opening them to increase the chambers o2% that they are not filled with 21%. My money is on pure o2, so once again they got it wrong and the rescuers are opening oxygen tanks.

Even just releasing pure O2 into the chamber has risks.

 

[MaxE]

Even just releasing pure O2 into the chamber has risks.

Absolutely. Everything they have done or will do has a risk. They are trying to minimize risk and get the most return for whatever risk they can’t minimize. Unfortunately when human life is at stake and more so when it is the life of children the formula for calculating acceptable risk or the tipping point is not always so clear.

May they be successful in this difficult task before them.

 

[DandyDon]

I have felt that I knew all along that diving them out was the only option. Setting up on a mountain covered in tropical forest in monsoon season to drill a shaft half a mile down to the chamber would be virtually impossible, and keeping the boys in the cave for 4 months until monsoon rains are over is too much to ask - of the boys, the rescuers, the rest of the country, and the world at large. Waiting even weeks would make it all harder.

 

[Ioncloud9]

I have felt that I knew all along that diving them out was the only option. Setting up on a mountain covered in tropical forest in monsoon season to drill a shaft half a mile down to the chamber would be virtually impossible, and keeping the boys in the cave for 4 months until monsoon rains are over is too much to ask - of the boys, the rescuers, the rest of the country, and the world at large. Waiting even weeks would make it all harder.

I guess the best they can do right now is give these boys a crash course in swimming and not panicking with a regulator or full face mask underwater, give them a crash course, and prep the cave. From what I've read its going to be at least 4-5 hours from start to finish to get out of the cave.

 

[Dan]

Absolutely. Everything they have done or will do has a risk. They are trying to minimize risk and get the most return for whatever risk they can’t minimize. Unfortunately when human life is at stake and more so when it is the life of children the formula for calculating acceptable risk or the tipping point is not always so clear.

May they be successful in this difficult task before them.

Here is a second news media that mentions delivering air, not oxygen, into the cave: https://nypost.com/2018/07/06/rescue-postponed-for-soccer-kids-trapped-in-cave/

"Officials announced earlier that oxygen levels inside the labyrinthine cavern system are now at 15 percent — down from a standard level of 21 percent — putting the kids at risk of hypoxia, which can be fatal.

But Osottanakorn said divers are delivering air tanks to the chamber where the team is stuck and opening them up."

 

[Magnus Lundstedt]

The people who know the most about cave rescues seem to be the most reluctant to speculate.

I think they are busy in a cave in Thailand. They don't have time to speculate. ;-)

 

[Centrals]

If the O2 level drops for whatever reasons then how about CO2?
Crack open some LiOH cannisters like those use in submarine and spaceships?