Heartbreaking video shows Thai cave diver vowing to ‘bring the boys home’ days before his death delivering air to trapped boys
HEARTBREAKING video emerged today showing a hero Thai cave diver vowing to “bring the kids home” days before his death delivering air to the trapped boys.
Ex-Navy Seal Saman Kunan suffocated while trying to help 12 schoolboys trapped in a flooded cave system in northern Thailand.
The hero's coffin arrives at the airport following his tragic death in the cave in northern ThailandAnd footage filmed days ago shows the hero on his way to the scene, vowing: “See you tonight at Tham Luang. We will bring the kids home.”
Saman's body is being brought back to his family today, and was given a hero's send-off at Mae Fah Luang Airport with full military honours.
The brave 38-year-old's remains will be returned to his hometown in Roi Et for a royal-sponsored funeral, the king of Thailand announced.
Military officers were pictured transporting his coffin which was draped in the flag of the South East Asian country.
The level of oxygen in the cave where the boys are trapped has dropped to 15 per cent from the normal level of around 21 per cent.
“We can no longer wait for all conditions (to be ready) because the circumstance is pressuring us,” Mr Yookongkaew said.
“At first we thought that we could sustain the kids’ lives for a long time where they are now, but now, many things have changed. We have a limited amount of time.”
Chiang Rai deputy governor Passakorn Boonyaluck said: “It was sad news, a former SEAL who volunteered to help died last night about 2am.
“His job was to deliver oxygen (in the cave). He did not have enough on his way back.”
Chiang Rai provincial Governor Narongsak Osatanakorn said the level of oxygen in the cave had dropped because of the presence of hundreds of rescue workers.
Authorities are now frantically drilling holes in the forest above the cave in a desperate bid to increase the air supply to the stranded group.
Around 30 oxygen tanks have also been deployed in the area which is swarming with emergency workers and reporters.
The boys have been taught how to swim and scuba dive as they prepare to take on the “unbelievably dangerous” route of paddling 2.5 miles through the tunnel's murky waters – a perilous journey which would take four hours.
They will be chaperoned through the pitch black cave network, filled with water likened to “black coffee”, by Brit diving experts as torrential monsoon rain showers are expected in the next day.
SEAL commander Yookongkaew warned: "At first we thought that we could sustain the kids' lives for a long time where they are now, but now, many things have changed.
"We have a limited amount of time."
Described as "very weak, but alive" by a British team of rescuers, the schoolkids have been given plenty of protein snacks and energy gels in bid to build up their strength ahead of their escape.
Meanwhile, heart-warming footage shows the schoolboys smiling while confirming they are in good health.
Authorities are still pumping water out of the tunnel system while also scouring the mountainside for other ways into the cave.
Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda said evacuating the lads "must speed up" as soon as possible - before more rain falls and exacerbates the flooding.
He said the boys would be probably brought out via the same complicated route through which their rescuers entered.
But he admitted if something went awry, some of the kids could die.
Paojinda said: "If something happens midway, it could be life-threatening."
“Diving is not easy. For people who have never done it, it will be difficult, unlike diving in a swimming pool, because the cave's features have small channels.”
Having them dug out of the cave is also being considered but it's feared if this is botched it could cause the cavern where the team has taken refuge to cave in.
It emerged yesterday the boys visited the cave to attempt a local initiation rite in which they had to scrawl their names on a wall at the end of the tunnel.
Footage emerged of two Brit rescue divers finding the terrified boys cowering in a darkened chamber inside the caves.
The group appeared exhausted, rake thin and sensitive to the light, with some speaking faltering English to try to communicate with their saviours.
British rescuers were the first to reach the schoolboy footballers after struggling through narrow passages and murky waters of the Tham Luang cave network in Chiang Rai.
Ben Raymenants, who was 1,300ft behind the British divers when they were found, told Sky News: "They had no food. They left their backpacks and their shoes before wading in there, trying to go the end of the tunnel like an initiation for local young boys to go to the end of the tunnel and write your name on the wall and then make it back.
"A flash flood because of sudden heavy rain locked them in, with no shoes and no food. They had just one flash light which obviously ran out."
Thai authorities have refused to rule out the possibility of charging the 25-year-old coach, Ekapol “Aek” Chanthawong, who took the boys into the cave.
Family members of those trapped say the team often went on adventuring trips together.
HERO BRITS WHO FOUND BOYS
Two British divers have "spearheaded" the discovery of the 12 boys and their football coach and were the first to reach the group.
Richard Stanton and John Volanthen, along with a third Briton, Robert Harper, joined the "huge"; search operation after the British Cave Rescue Council (BCRC) was contacted by Thai authorities seeking expert help.
Stanton, in his 50s, is a fireman from Coventry who helped to rescue Britons trapped in a cave in Mexico in 2004, according to reports.
He is regarded as one of the world's leading cave rescue experts, and was made an MBE at the end of 2012.
Divernet described him as "arguably the main face of British cave diving" and he has told the publication he regards diving as "my hobby" and undertakes it completely voluntarily.
Mr Volanthen, an IT consultant in his 40s, who is based in Bristol, reportedly set a world record for the longest dive from the surface of water in a team with Mr Stanton in 2011.
He said in an interview with the Sunday Times magazine in 2013 that caving requires a cool head and that "panic and adrenaline are great in certain situations but not in cave-diving".
WHAT ARE THE DANGERS?
None of the boys can swim, while diving requires extreme mental fortitude, and panicking when swimming - often in pitch black conditions - is deadly.
As they have all been in the dark for two weeks, the team must first all eat to regain strength and would wear sunglasses to protect their eyes as they exit the cave.
Bill Whitehouse, from the British Cave Rescue Council which is helping with the rescue, said the diving option was "certainly not easy".
He explained: "There's space to make your way through, but it is 50/50 underwater over 1.5km. That's still a lot of diving and it's possible it will need a lot of equipment."
HOW WOULD THE RESCUE WORK?
The evacuation would see each boy taught to use dive equipment then escorted by pairs of divers - like a relay - through the cave network.
Local media report some sections of the cave are so narrow the youngsters would have to travel through them alone - all while avoiding any panic.
Other sections of floodwaters are so muddy that their rescuers reported being unable to see and had to feel their way through.
Experts say the kids would have to been taken out one-by-one - because if one ran into difficulty this would cause a blockage and risk the lives of the kids behind him.
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