12 boys lost in flooded Thai cave

[huwporter]

The general public - and including most journalists - aren't clear on the difference between oxygen and air in the first place, and "divers oxygen tanks" is just what they call SCUBA tanks. Hence, that is what journalists write. I have heard that even if a diving-knowledgable journalist writes a story correctly using "air tanks" then the editors can "correct" it to "oxygen tanks" because "everyone knows that divers use oxygen tanks".

The diver "running out of oxygen" is the same thing, with the addition of several layers of confusion of being filtered through multiple languages and that they were possibly carrying actual oxygen tanks to raise the PO2 in the boys chamber. Most likely he ran out of air in the single air tank he was using.

 

[GreyhoundsAreFast]

How do you equalize your ears when you are drugged up & dragged down to 90 feet deep?

90ft deep? Where did you see that?

 

[telemonster]

The pictures have had people using standard 80cuft tanks as well as setups with tanks marked for Nitrox and air.

There is one picture of a front mount counterlung O2 CCR in use, French made Triton I believe. The rest of the photos I've seen have been OC.

Obviously MOD and fire risk are issue, but using high % o2 could add to the available o2 in the atmosphere in the cave which at one point had declined dangerously low due to the all the visitors.

 

[boulderjohn]

In a typical news story about a dive accident, the reporter will refer to the diers using oxygen tanks, and can routinely infer that they really mean air or nitrox. That is not completely true in this case.

In some articles, yes, you can see that they really mean air, but in some cases it really could be oxygen. For example, they want to bring the oxygen levels in the room up a bit, and different reporters have said they are using air tanks and oxygen tanks. Either one would work. In some articles, the reporter has called them air tanks in one sentence and oxygen tanks in another, and it is possible that either could be accurate or inaccurate. People with good knowledge have reported seeing big green oxygen supply bottles outside the caves in some of the news clips.

 

[telemonster]

90ft deep? Where did you see that?

It was stated earlier on this thread

 

[Mrs. B]

Oh, I get it since I have penetrated places where you have to dismount the tank

Hawaiian Slings are made for that purpose

I haven’t seen the restriction dimensions in the Thailand caves have you?

I posted it from the article because I thought the discussion was about what is under consideration

I’d want them not to be able to rip their masks off is my point

Has anyone officially ruled out drilling from above?

 

[JohnnyC]

Sure, they could drill, if they had 4 months to accurately radio locate them through 2500+ feet of rock, cut a road up the side of a mountain in the monsoon season, excavate enough of a platform that you could put a drill on, haul said 30+ ton drill up said side of the mountain during the monsoon on a convoy of trucks, haul another convoy worth of logistical support up there, and once that's all done, spend at least a month drilling the hole. So yeah, they could drill, but the kids would be dead months before the bore hole reached them.

There's video of the restrictions on various news sites. At least one is very small, no-mount, and ugly.

 

[Skittl1321]

Again, I wonder why there is no talk of excavating where the restrictions are and widening the space. Has that already been dismissed (cave in; too hard to get equipment)? Has anyone heard anything about that at all?

 

[Jack Hammer]

The way the French team states the simplicity of the extraction makes me question their actually skills and abilities. There is nothing simple about it.

 

[Mrs. B]

I wondered about two things

Some type of isolating foam insulation to barrier off their space, I’ve seen it used in construction

The possibility of pressurizing a confined cavity

Even if it wasn’t air/ water tight, it could be a matter of flow rates