A diver from Yorkshire who helped the 12 boys trapped in a cave in Thailand reach safety has been praised for his brave work. Jason Mallinson was among the team of divers who navigated an intense 11-hour journey to and from the remote cave. The rescue operation that captured the world’s imagination involved 90 divers from around the world and hundreds of rescue workers. Expert diver Jason Mallinson was one of four Brits that helped lead the boys to safety (Picture: MEN Media) In the end, it proved a resounding success as all 12 of the young football players and their coach were successfully rescued. Mr Mallinson, from Huddersfield, took part in all three dives which brought the boys out. exclusive Instagrammer accused in £4,000,000 forex 'scam' finally breaks silence In a statement, the 50-year-old’s parents Ray and Anne Mallinson said: ‘We are very proud of Jason. He went out on Wednesday with half a tonne of equipment. ‘We know he is one of the four British lead divers that brought them out. ‘They know each other really well. The whole family is very proud of him.’ To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The divers navigated tight spaces over a long period of time to complete the rescue (Picture: MEN Media) All 12 boys are recovering after having been safely rescued (Picture: Reuters) The dive that Mr Mallinson, who is the father of an 18-month-old boy, and other divers completed was highly dangerous. This was highlighted when former Thai navy diver Saman Funan died when he ran out of oxygen on Friday. Anne Mallinson added: ‘We knew Jason was going on the Tuesday before he flew out. We have not had much contact with him but we do know that he has done three trips to bring the boys out. ‘All the rescue divers are very modest, they do not get any financial reward. They love their jobs and are prepared to take the risks despite knowing how dangerous it is.’ A call has been made to honour all the British divers involved in the rescue operation. Two other British divers, Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, were the first to reach the group, nine days after the boys and their coach went missing in the underground network in northern Thailand. The tunnels they navigated through to discover the boys were so narrow they had to remove their air tanks to pass, the rock at the top and bottom of the tunnels touching their chest and back as they squeezed through. They, along with a number of other British elite divers, had flown to the region with specialist equipment to assist at the request of the Thai authorities. Got a story for Metro.co.uk? If you have a story for our news team, email us at webnews@metro.co.uk. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.<doc-sep>‘We'll get them all out, but there’s a good chance some will die.’ That was the grim warning by British cave diver Jason Mallinson and his colleagues to the Thai authorities as they prepared to rescue 12 frightened and weakened schoolboys trapped two and a half miles deep inside a dark, flooded cave. But it was thanks to their incredible courage and skill this gloomy prophecy never materialised. Mission accomplished: Chris Jewell, above, helped guide the boys to safety from the cave complex in Thailand Before Mallinson’s arrival at Tham Luang in Thailand’s Chiang Rai province where the boys were trapped inside the vast cave system, the authorities had been considering leaving the football team and their coach there for months. But with monsoon rains looming, the boys’ health deteriorating and oxygen levels in the cave dropping, it soon became clear there was just one option – a daring rescue mission which was to captivate the world and involved more than 1,000 rescuers, including Thai Navy SEALs, teams from around the world and scores of volunteers. Today, for the first time, Jason, 50, and fellow cave diver 35-year-old Chris Jewell – who between them rescued seven of the 12 boys – give their compelling account of the high-risk mission, revealing just how close it came to disaster, despite meticulous planning. Jason Mallinson, a diver from Yorkshire, also helped to free the 12 boys trapped in a cave in Thailand. He is pictured upon his safe return home to Huddersfield In their astonishing and brutally honest account, much of which debunks the official line and previous reports, the cave divers tell how: Plans to leave the boys in the cave until the end of the four-month monsoon season would have ended in certain death; An attempt to lay an oxygen pipe was never completed, making a dive rescue inevitable; On his final run, Jewell, while guiding a boy to safety, lost his grip on the rope guideline for four terrifying minutes in zero visibility; The safety and equipment protocols of the Thai Navy SEALs were ‘completely wrong’ for cave diving and the tragic death of one of them made the authorities realise they were ‘out of their depth’. Trapped by floodwater for more than two weeks deep inside a network of fetid caves, the 12 boys aged between 11 and 16 of the Wild Boars football team, plus their coach, were found alive nine days into their ordeal – sparking the huge international operation to bring them out alive. As the world held its breath, the final three agonising days of the drama saw the boys – reportedly sedated on ketamine to calm them for the extraction – emerging one by one, and the operation hailed as ‘a miracle’. This file photo released by Tham Luang Rescue Operation Center shows the missing boys and their soccer coach as they were found in a dark, partially flooded cave, in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai, Thailand But those modest miracle workers shrug off any talk of their own courage. They have nonetheless been thrust into the limelight and their inspiring story is one of rare bravery in an unforgiving environment where few would willingly venture. And they are acutely aware that they were entrusted with the gravest responsibility – the lives of children. Father-of-one Mallinson, from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, was swaying high up on a power station chimney in Scunthorpe, carrying out his day job as a self-employed rope access worker, when he received a text message which was his call-out to attend the ‘most difficult cave rescue ever attempted’. The rescue in progress with boys being carried out on flexible stretchers with face masks as they leave the depth of the tunnel to the mouth of the cave A cave diver for nearly 30 years, he is on the British Cave Rescue Council’s list of experts to summon in the event of emergency both in the UK and globally. Together with Jewell, he was asked to go to Thailand to join cave-diving colleagues Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, who discovered the boys and their coach on Monday, July 2. Once in Thailand, Mallinson and Jewell’s first mission on Friday, July 6, was to familiarise themselves with the ‘sumps’ – the six long treacherous underwater sections totalling more than a kilometre, often with narrow ‘choke points’ presenting a deadly hazard to the boys’ escape. At one stage the Thai authorities had rejected suggestions from the Britons that taking the boys out underwater – even though it might cost lives – was the only option The other vital job was to test the failing oxygen quality in ‘cavern nine’ where the boys were being looked after by their coach and four Royal Thai Navy SEALs. Tragically, another former SEAL, Saman Gunan, who volunteered to help the operation, had died in a diving accident in the tunnels the day before Mallinson and Jewell’s arrival. On entering the cavern where the boys, dressed in T-shirts and shorts, were huddling together on a muddy shelf, it was obvious to Mallinson immediately that the air quality was poor. Each cave diver prepared a boy for rescue, helping them into the neoprene wetsuits and making sure the full-face masks had a waterproof seal around their face ‘You only had to try to do something physical like pulling yourself out of the water up the steep muddy slope and it was a real strain because of the thinness of the air – you’d be panting and sweating much more than normal. It’s a bit like being at high altitude,’ he said. Carrying an underwater notebook, Mallinson decided that writing short messages home would boost the boys’ spirits – and bring encouragement for their desperate parents outside. After taking the air readings in the cave and using a finger pulse oxymeter to analyse the oxygen level in each boy’s blood, it was time for Mallinson and Jewell to leave them. The Thais clung on to the hope that the boys might last inside the cave until the monsoon was over in October - but the rescue was brought forward Despite the jokey banter they had developed with them, Mallinson could not avoid darker thoughts. ‘When I looked around the cave, a voice in the back of my mind was telling me this could be the last time anyone sees these kids,’ he said. ‘Chris and I exchanged glances and I thought they are in a real predicament here. It is going to be really, really tough to get these kids out of here. ‘I did not think they would survive the rainy season if they were left in there for four months.’ Until that point the Thai authorities had rejected suggestions from the Britons that taking the boys out underwater – even though it might cost lives – was the only option. The Thais clung on to the hope that the boys might last inside the cave until the monsoon was over in October. The death of 38-year-old Mr Gunan was crucial in convincing his commanders that the British expertise should be heeded. His death was a wake-up call for the Thai authorities, according to Mallinson: ‘They realised they were way out of their depth and they had been lucky to get those guys into that last chamber with the boys and we were the only people who could remedy the situation.’ From then on, diving the boys out was accepted as the plan. Meanwhile, the BCRC – along with other European cave rescue organisations – put out the call for more divers to perform a support role. Among them were Met Office forecaster Josh Bratchley, 27, who cut short his holiday in the Dolomites, and serving Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers soldier Connor Roe. They would both be stationed at points in the tunnels to help the four primary rescuers to switch air cylinders and navigate the boys on flexible plastic stretchers called ‘skeds’ over one long section of dry land between two sumps. Mallinson recalled: ‘Once we decided to extract them, Chris and I were two of the four who went in to prepare them for the dive, but there hadn’t been a chance to practise with the masks on them. ‘I brought the first one out. We didn’t know if our plan was going to succeed, so we did a test with some kids in a nearby swimming pool.’ Each cave diver prepared a boy for rescue, helping them into the neoprene wetsuits and making sure the full-face masks had a waterproof seal around their face. Then came the moment in the dark, dank cave when the boys, lying face down in the water, were gently pushed under the surface. ‘There was a degree of sedation which helped, but when you go under the water, it’s surprisingly calming, even for a non-diver,’ said Jewell. ‘They were incredibly brave and I never saw any signs of panic from any of them.’ The first section of the dive was the longest sump – 350 yards entirely underwater, but unlike some other sumps it was fairly wide, and the divers could haul themselves and their precious cargo along it using the rope ‘dive line’ – laid throughout the tunnels to guide the divers to safety – and the fins on their feet in about 20 minutes. ‘The boys could understand only a few words of English. It was mostly a case of me saying, “OK?”, to try to calm them down. ‘It was one person per kid. Depending on the section, we’d have to move the boys around – sometimes passing them beneath us,’ said Mallinson. ‘Each of them had a buoyancy jacket, so we could grip the straps of that across their back. There was also a tether between the boy and me. We had to keep hold of the guide line at all times. If we’d lost the guide line, we’d have both been lost.’ As Chris Jewell was to discover on his final dive, losing the dive line with no visibility was a terrifying experience [see panel opposite]. The daring rescue mission in the treacherous confines of a flooded cave in northern Thailand has saved all 12 boys and their soccer coach who were trapped deep within the labyrinth, ending a grueling 18-day ordeal that claimed the life of an experienced volunteer diver and riveted people around the world Mallinson added: ‘It’s a big deal being totally responsible for someone’s life. I had to be so careful I didn’t dislodge the lad’s mask. Having that responsibility for someone so young is nerve-racking.’ Inch by inch along the tunnels, sometimes having to ‘post’ the boys ahead of them through narrow slits only 15in wide while holding both the boys’ and their own air cylinders, the divers made their way through silty water ‘with all the visibility of a caffe latte’. Divers would normally wear neoprene gloves in such conditions, but wanting to feel their way and protect the boys from rocks or stalagtites, both men removed the gloves for increased sensitivity, a decision which left Jewell in particular with severely battered hands and knuckles. Hardened outdoor worker Mallinson jokingly dismissed his IT consultant colleague’s injuries as a ‘keyboard warrior who looks as though he’s been punching walls’. But as the smile disappeared, he added: ‘If we had bashed the boys against the wall or the air supply had failed, they would have died. There would have been nothing you could do except swim as fast as you could to get them to the next air chamber. ‘It took a couple of hours to bring each boy out to where we passed them on to the Americans and Thais. It was an unprecedented distance – up to a kilometre underwater, with the visibility nil at times. ‘But once you got used to each child and the way they breathed, we got into a rhythm. ‘The only way you could tell they were breathing was the bubbles coming out of the exhaust valve on the mask just above the chin on the side. 'Some of the kids had a nice regular breathing pattern, but others were shallow and there would be a long gap between breaths. You couldn’t always see the face mask but you could hear the bubbles.’<doc-sep>
One of the hero cave divers who helped rescue 12 boys and their football coach from flooded caves in Thailand is from Huddersfield. Jason Mallinson took part in all three dives which brought the boys out in a daring rescue mission, reports the Huddersfield Examiner. Now Lord Ashcroft is calling for those involved to be awarded with a George Cross or George Medal. The former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party said: "Please retweet if you would support a George Cross or George Medal to the two volunteer Brit cave divers who found the missing Thai boys and participated in their difficult rescue..." His tweet has been retweeted more than 2,900 times and liked more than 2,200. The boys and their football coach suffered a terrifying ordeal for 17 days after they got trapped underground. The members of the Wild Boars football team aged between 11 and 17 had entered the Tham Luang cave system in the province of Chiang Rai during an excursion with their coach. Their plight saw a massive, dangerous three-day-long operation to get them out involving a team of 90 expert divers – 40 from Thailand and 50 from overseas. They guided the boys and their coach through darkness and submerged passageways towards the mouth of the cave system. Jason’s parents, Ray and Anne Mallinson, said: “We are very proud of Jason. He went out on Wednesday with half a tonne of equipment. (Image: REX/Shutterstock) (Image: REUTERS) “We know he is one of the four British lead divers that brought them out. They know each other really well. "The whole family is very proud of him.” Jason, who has just turned 50 and lives in Oakes with his partner and 18-month-old boy, had plenty of challenges taking part in the rescue. The dangerous nature of the caves was underlined by the death of a former Thai navy diver who lost his life there on Friday. Saman Gunan was returning from a mission to provide the group with air tanks when he ran out of oxygen. Anne added: “We knew Jason was going on the Tuesday before he flew out. "We have not had much contact with him but we do know that he has done three trips to bring the boys out. “All the rescue divers are very modest, they do not get any financial reward. "They love their jobs and are prepared to take the risks despite knowing how dangerous it is.” (Image: REUTERS) (Image: REUTERS) The group got trapped on June 23 after heavy rains flooded their way back out. They were found by British divers last week, huddled in darkness on a ledge amid fears they could be forced to stay there for months until water receded. There were cheers as a daring rescue operation involved dozens of divers and hundreds of other rescue workers came to an end on Tuesday evening. It’s not the first time Jason has been involved in a daring rescue mission. In 2004 he attracted international attention after flying to Cuetzalan with colleague Richard Stanton to help rescue six Brits trapped in the Cueva Alpazat cave network in the centre of Mexico. And Jason led a team in 2010 on a two-and-a-half day life-risking dive into the unexplored Pozo Azul cave system in Spain. The expedition took Jason to territory never reached before, breaking the previous world record which was 4.8 miles. It’s been likened to climbing Everest and it’s made the four-strong team world record breakers.