One of the divers who helped save 12 schoolboys and their football coach from a flooded cave in Thailand has played down his heroics as he returned to Britain. There have been calls for John Volanthen and Rick Stanton to be honoured after they were the first divers to reach the stranded group in the Tham Luang cave complex. After landing at Heathrow on Thursday, Volanthen spoke of the relief he had felt at making contact with the boys. “We were very pleased and we were very relieved that they were all alive, but I think at that point we realised the enormity of the situation and that’s perhaps why it took a while to get them all out,” he told Sky News. “We are not heroes. What we do is very calculating, very calm. It’s quite the opposite.” Volanthen paid tribute to the Thai navy diver Saman Kunan, who died while replenishing oxygen canisters, saying his death brought a “bittersweet” taste to an otherwise “excellent” operation. Volanthen, an IT consultant in his 40s who is based in Bristol, and Stanton, a firefighter from Coventry who is in his 50s, reached the group nine days after they went missing. The final four boys and their 25-year-old coach were brought to safety on Tuesday, 18 days after they entered the cave. The rescue was particularly treacherous because the boys, aged 11 to 16, had to swim through tight spaces despite having no previous diving experience.<doc-sep>Some of the divers tasked with safely extracting members of a soccer team from a Thailand cave are opening up about the dramatic rescue. All 13 members of the Wild Boars soccer team, including their coach, are recovering in the hospital. They were successfully pulled out of the flooded Tham Luang Nang Non cave earlier this week after they were trapped for more than two weeks. The boys, ranging in age from 11 to 16, became trapped on June 23 after the cave system was flooded during a monsoon. What followed was a carefully planned operation involving Thai navy Seals and international divers. One diver, Thai navy Seal Saman Kunan, died while bringing oxygen to the children. The British divers behind the rescue are now back at home and speaking out about the effort. Rick Stanton, who was one of the first British divers to approach the team in the cave on July 2, described the relief he felt as he learned the boys were all alive. “As they were coming down the slope, we were counting them until we got to 13 … unbelievable," he said during a press conference at Heathrow Airport. Stanton, a retired firefighter, joined a group of British divers who left London on June 26 to join the rescue effort. “This is completely uncharted, unprecedented territory so nothing like this has been done, so of course there were doubts,” Stanton, who helped map the cave, said. “But I knew that we had a good team with good support from the Thai authorities and national caving community and rescue organizations, so we had the best that we could do to make the plan work." Even with his years of experience in cave rescues, Stanton said this is not a rescue he would ever imagine taking part in. “[It’s] one I would dread doing,” he said. Two other British cave divers who assisted in the mission were John Volanthen and Jason Mallinson. The duo were given certificates of appreciation from Thai Tourism Minister Weerasak Kowsurat this week. The men were applauded for their hard work and Mallinson had some words for the boys. Story continues "We are glad that we can get you out alive and be careful in the future," he said. The group is currently in the hospital and a video released from the Thai government shows the boys doing just fine. RELATED STORIES The Thailand Cave Rescue and Other Stories of People Trapped Deep Within the Earth Thai Boys Seen in Hospital Video After Daring Cave Rescue Thailand Cave Rescue: Soccer Team's Ordeal May Get Hollywood Treatment Related Articles:<doc-sep>Chiang Rai, Thailand (CNN) A British diver who first discovered 12 schoolboys and their coach stranded on a ledge in a flooded cave in Chiang Rai, in northern Thailand, has described the moment he first saw them -- and played down suggestions he was a hero. Retired fireman Rick Stanton and fellow diver John Volanthen found the children deep within the cave nine days after they went missing. Stanton was speaking at a news conference at Heathrow Airport outside London Friday, alongside fellow British divers Josh Bratchley, Chris Jewell and Connor Roe, Irish diver Jim Warny and cave rescuers Mike Clayton and Gary Mitchell. Divers and rescuers from the Thai cave mission arrive at Heathrow Airport Friday. From left to right: Chris Jewell, Mike Clayton, Rick Stanton, Lance-corporal Connor Roe, Josh Bratchley, Gary Mitchell and Jim Warny When asked how they felt when they discovered the young football team alive in the Tham Luang cave complex, Stanton replied: "Initially, of course, excitement, relief that they were still alive. As they were coming down the slope, we were counting them until we got to 13. Unbelievable," he said. "We gave them a little bit of extra light, they still had light, they looked in good health. Then, of course, when we departed, all we could think about was how we were going to get them out. So there was relief, tempered with uncertainty." He declined to go into detail about how his team rescued the children, saying it was "too detailed for this point in time." Rescue personnel carry a member of the "Wild Boars" Thai youth football team on a stretcher during the rescue operation inside the Tham Luang cave. "The most important thing to have was a full face mask which had been applied inside with positive pressure to enable them to breathe and to be relaxed enough so not to feel any anxiety during the process," he said. "There was a lot of chaos but we were so task-orientated, focused, and we blanked that out and carried on with the job in hand, step by step, until we achieved success." "Are we heroes?" he said. "No, we were just using a very unique skill set, which we normally use for our own interests and sometimes we are able to use that and give something back to the community." Jewell said the diving conditions "were extremely challenging. There was poor visibility and responsibility for another human being's life." "The Thai authorities took a lot of steps to divert rivers on the mountaintop which we believe bought us as lot of time to get this outcome," he said. Former Thai Navy SEAL Saman Kunan died during the operation while replenishing oxygen canisters. British diver helped pinpoint boy's location British caver Vern Unsworth, 63, who lives in Chiang Rai, was instrumental in linking up the Thai authorities with the British experts. "I was actually scheduled to go into the cave on June 24 anyway," Unsworth told CNN in an interview in Thailand. "I got all my gear ready, and I was going in to do a solo trip just to see what the water levels were like. And I got called out at 2 o'clock Sunday morning, and I was there for the whole 17 days." Unsworth's role in the rescue was also pivotal because of his intimate knowledge of the Tham Luang cave system, which he describes as his "second home" after spending the past six years exploring it. He had been involved in cave rescue operations in the UK before, but "nothing on this scale." It was Unsworth who initally pinpointed where he thought the Wild Boars team would be waiting. They were found 200 meters away from that point, which was "probably around about the best place they could have been," he said. The flooding of the cave could not have been predicted, he said, as the floodwater had come through three to four weeks earlier than last year. "These kids were just totally unlucky. Wrong place, wrong time," he said. "It happened very quick. You can't blame the coach, you can't blame the kids." Race against time In the early days of the search operation, Unsworth said he quickly realized that outside expertise was required, and advised the Thai authorities to bring in specialist cave divers who had dealt with similar rescues in the past. "It was a race against time," he said. "They needed world class divers and that's what we got." He was the first one to suggest calling for help from Volanthen, Stanton and Robert Harper -- who arrived a few days into the search on June 27. "(They went) straight into the cave," Unsworth said. "That's when things started to really happen." Unsworth described how after the euphoria of finding the team, the reality set in of the seemingly impossible task ahead: getting them out of the cave. "Just getting to the dive start point was proving to be very difficult," he told CNN. "You get to a stage where only 200 meters into the cave you hit what we call a sump where the water meets the roof," he says. "So that was making it difficult anyway to get into the system, never mind start from the diver point, which was chamber three." A few days later pumps were brought in to start taking water out of the cave, which along with the low levels of rain that week, helped to lower the water levels as much as possible. But when heavy rains were forecast, the deadline approached for the rescue to begin. "It got to a point where we knew that the weather forecast wasn't going to be too brilliant," he says. "We said we have to get in." Boys sedated The complexities of the cave diving and the dangerous route the divers had to take with the boys -- many of whom don't swim -- meant they decided to sedate the boys so they would "stop panicking" during the rescue, Unsworth says. "It was the only way," he said. "Some of these kids couldn't swim and they'd been put into cold water with wet suits on and full face mask, (which is) alien to them." He added that this would also reduce long-term psychological damage because they won't remember the actual rescue. The next challenge, Unsworth said, was coordination between all the different groups including the Thai Navy SEALs and international volunteers. "They had never been involved in anything like this," he says. "I think it was just communication. It was difficult at times. Sometimes things got misinterpreted." Members of the Royal Thai Navy are pictured with the 12 schoolboys, members of a local soccer team, and their coach, who were trapped in the Tham Luang Cave network in Northern Thailand. Unsworth said he expected a "high rate of attrition" in terms of the the boys' survival, but added that hopes increased after the first day of the rescue. "Sunday was when the first four came out and they were all strong and nothing really to worry about them," he said. "It gave us hope for the next four and the next five," he says, especially after the "very sad" death of Kunan. The worsening weather added to the concerns among the rescue teams. "The last day was the worst day," Unsowrth said. "The third day you have to get five out, plus four Navy SEALs, and the weather is changing quite rapidly. The water levels did come up on the Tuesday. You could see it happening. You could feel the tension." Chatting to CNN in a leafy café north of Chiang Rai, Unsworth appeared exhausted physically and emotionally, and is still reeling from the outcome of the rescue. "Just to get any of them out alive would have been a miracle. But to get 13 out of 13 ... won't happen again," he says. "(It's the) biggest miracle ever."<doc-sep>
One of the British divers who helped save 12 schoolboys and their football coach from a flooded cave in Thailand has downplayed claims the team are "heroes". John Volanthen has returned to Britain after the successful mission to reach the stranded group in an underground network in Chiang Rai province. After landing at Heathrow Airport, Mr Volanthen spoke of the relief he felt at seeing the boys rescued after an 18-day ordeal in the Luang Nang Non cave, but was modest about his extraordinary feat. "We were very pleased and we were very relieved that they were all alive but I think at that point we realised the enormity of the situation and that's perhaps why it took a while to get them all out," he told Sky News. He added: "We are not heroes. What we do is very calculating, very calm. It's quite the opposite." Image: British cave diver John Volanthen returns from Thailand after the successful cave rescue of the 12 young footballers and their coach Image: Footage of the boys in hospital was shown in a press conference in Chiang Rai There have been calls for Mr Volanthen and Rick Stanton to receive awards for their efforts. But Mr Volanthen credited the international team of military, navy and civilian divers who all "pulled together". He also paid tribute to Thai navy diver Saman Kunan, who died while replenishing oxygen canisters, saying his death brought a "bittersweet" taste to an otherwise successful operation. The IT consultant, in his 40s, who is based in Bristol, and Mr Stanton, a fireman from Coventry who is in his 50s, reached the group nine days after they went missing deep within the labyrinth. The final four boys and their 25-year-old coach were brought to safety on Tuesday, having entered the network for exploration on 23 June before it became flooded by monsoon rains. Their rescue was particularly treacherous because the boys, aged 11 to 16, had to swim through tight spaces despite having no previous diving experience. They were given a tranquilliser to keep them calm throughout the process. Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player First pictures of cave rescue boys in hospital On Wednesday video showed the boys recuperating in an isolation ward in hospital, chatting to each other and making two-finger victory signs while their parents waved to them through a glass window. But it has also emerged that the operation almost ended in disaster when the water pumps failed in the final stage. Commander Chaiyananta Peeranarong, who was the last to leave the cave, has revealed how he heard shouts of alarm as the pumps failed in an area between two chambers, filling them with water as 20 rescuers remained inside. "Suddenly the Australian guy who was overseeing that area started shouting that the water pump had stopped working," said Mr Chaiyananta. "If you didn't use the water pump in that location, you could only come out with an oxygen tank," he said, adding the remaining people did not have diving gear to hand. "By the time the last diver was out, the water was already at head level, almost to the point where he needed an oxygen tank." Danish diver Claus Rasmussen told Sky News how brave he thought the boys were. "They're stronger than most other people around. Had it been anywhere else than Thailand then I'm absolutely sure that none of those kids would be in any condition compared to what these boys are. They're super strong." Mr Rasmussen said the operation had left him "wasted - completely and utterly" and that he was looking forward to getting back to normal life again.