THE mum of a hero Brit spearheading the rescue of 12 boys in Thailand today revealed her fears for her son after a Navy SEAL died inside the flooded cave. Cave diving expert John Volanthen, 47, and fellow Brit Rick Stanton, were the ones who found the boys alive inside the tunnel earlier this week. 10 Jill, 80, today spoke of her fears for her son as he helps with the dangerous rescue mission in Thailand Credit: BBC Despite being world-renowned experts at underwater cave rescues, their work remains fraught with danger - a fact hammered home by the death of an elite diver at the site. Saman Kunan, 38, died from a lack of oxygen as he attempted to swim back through the underground labyrinth to safety last night. John's mum Jill, from Brighton today told The Sun Online her "tummy turned over" when she heard the news about his death. She added: "I'm actually very concerned, and even when (John) does extreme runs, at 130, 150miles, I worry. They're all natural things that a mother does worry about, but you just accept it as part of life. What we know so far: The football team made up of 12 boys aged between 11 and 16 and their coach ran into trouble on 23 June They were visiting the cave network in Chiang Rai when monsoon rains trapped them deep inside They were found safe on Monday night by British divers, who discovered them huddled together on a ledge about 1.2miles inside the network They are all in reasonable health - one diver said they were "very weak, but alive" The military is sending in provisions to last them up to four months while they assess rescue options The children are being taught how to dive and have been given masks to practice breathing A Thai navy seal has died during the rescue mission from a lack of oxygen A devastating monsoon which could flood the cave and leave them stranded for four months is closing in 10 John Volanthen, right and fellow Brit Rick Stanton at the site in Thailand Credit: AP:Associated Press 10 The pair, working with fellow Brit Rob Harper, were the first to find the boys alive Credit: AFP or licensors 10 The pair have decades of cave diving experience and have performed many risky rescues Credit: SWNS:South West News Service "I feel very sorry for the gentleman, I feel sorry for his family, and all the people involved. Someone has lost their life and that's very important and I'm extremely sorry for his family." Jill, 80, has previously spoken of her pride for her son, who has performed scores of dangerous underwater cave rescues over the past two decades. He and Rick remain in Chiang Rai, Thailand, where they are working with international team of rescuers to try and rescue the 12 boys and their football coach. Aged between 11 and 16, the brave lads and their coach, 26, have been inside the flooded Tham Luang network since June 23, after becoming trapped after entering it to carry out a local initiation ritual. Brit caver's mum speaks of her pride at son, John Volanthen's heroic rescue work in Thailand 10 Hero diver Saman died from lack of oxygen in the cave network in Thailand 10 Time is running out for the group of young footballers who are being taught to swim and scuba dive ahead of their escape bid Credit: EPA 10 The young footballers could be lifted out through a secret passage instead of having to swim out 10 The elite diver had been laying oxygen tanks in the cave when he died Credit: Facebook Heroic Saman lost consciousness on his way out of the Tham Luang cave and could not be revived by his colleagues. He had left the Navy last year, but returned just to help the rescue effort. "The conditions in the cave are tough," Admiral Apakorn Yuukongkaew, commander of the SEALS unit, told reporters on Friday. "Once he placed the oxygen tanks he became unconscious on his way back. His buddy tried to administer first aid, when there was no response he tried to move him," Apakorn said. "We won't let his life be in vain. We will carry on". Following Saman’s death, authorities have admitted for the first time that the stricken kids cannot wait in the cave until the rainy season passes in October. 10 The last known picture of Saman before he lost his life in the cave 10 The death of the physically fit and highly-trained hero has heightened fears over the safety of the young boys Credit: Facebook MOST READ IN NEWS 'GOBSMACKED' Queen 'gave Harry OK for Oprah series after misleading pitch about soldiers' ROD LIDDLE Ousting right-on National Trust boss is a victory against wokery DRUMMER DEAD School Of Rock star dies at 32 after being hit by car as Jack Black mourns HOUSE ABOUT IT You won't believe what this ordinary London home looks like on the inside Exclusive TOM'S LEGACY Captain Tom Moore — who raised £39m for charity — left family £73k in will JABS HOPE Scientists 'crack cause of blood clots linked to Covid jabs & know how to fix it' Officials said the window of opportunity to free the group is limited. The cave system in northern Thailand is losing oxygen as rescuers continue to try and deliver air supplies to the kids. A ventilation pipe, which is also being coached through, must reach the children today.<doc-sep>EMBED >More News Videos Elizabeth Hur has the latest on the soccer team trapped in the cave. SpaceX & Boring Co engineers headed to Thailand tomorrow to see if we can be helpful to govt. There are probably many complexities that are hard to appreciate without being there in person. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 6, 2018 SAN FRANCISCO -- As more monsoon rains are expected, Thai authorities say the 12 boys stranded inside a cave and their coach will not be imminently rescued because they do not want to risk the boys' lives. On Friday, Bay Area tech leader Elon Musk joined the conversation of how to safely rescue the group, saying he might have a solution and is sending help.Thai officials say the 12 boys stranded inside the cave are strong enough to walk but can't swim safely yet. Divers have been teaching them diving and breathing techniques.Mauritius Bell is a diving safety officer with San Francisco's California Academy of Sciences. He has extensive cave diving experience. "It's extremely challenging to train someone in those conditions to dive, let alone cave dive," said Bell.Cave diving presents unique challenges. "By virtue of the fact that you have an overhead above you, which means that you cannot ascend straight up if you want to exit the cave, you have to go back the way you entered," said Bell.He went on to say, "It sounds like there are other options at play as far as coring down and then the Elon Musk solution. "Musk tweeted that he was sending employees from his companies SpaceX and Boring to see if they could help.He also tweeted suggestions like inflatable tubes and pods to create an air tunnel passageway underwater. "If Elon says it will work hopefully it will," said Bell.<doc-sep>Rick Stanton and John Volanthen are the British cave diving experts who first located the missing Thai soccer team and now are charged with helping bring them out in what is expected to be a treacherous, multi-day journey through narrow passageways. The story of the Thai soccer team and their coach, who have been trapped in Tham Luang Cave area in northern Chiang Rai province since June 23, 2018, has produced heroes – among them Stanton and Volanthen – and tragedy, as a Thai Navy Seal, Sgt. Major Saman Gunan, lost his life valiantly trying to deliver oxygen canisters. Stanton’s full name is Richard Stanton. The two British cave divers have been referred to as the “A Team” in their field. A third British cave diver, Robert Harper, is also involved in the Thai cave rescue of the boys, ages 11 to 16, and their coach. Six of the boys had been rescued by 10 a.m. Eastern time on July 8, 2019. On July 7, 2018, Thai officials indicated it was “D-Day” and said the cave rescue was beginning. The Thai Navy Seals, who are assisting in the cave rescue, posted this photo before it launched: Who are Rick Stanton and John Volanthen? How did they get involved in cave diving? Here’s what you need to know: 1. Stanton & Volanthen Found the Boys Huddled in the Cave & Took a Video Seen Around the World Rick Stanton and John Volanthen already helped perform one miracle: They discovered the boys, still alive, inside the bowels of the cave after the soccer team had been missing for nine days. They had arrived in Thailand three days after the boys were first reported missing. Now, they are part of the team that will try to guide the boys out. The video footage the men took of the moment they located the boys in the cave warmed hearts around the world. According to the Guardian, Bill Whitehead, vice chair of the British Cave Rescue Council (BCRC), said Stanton and Volanthen “were pushing ahead with the other divers following on behind, creating dumps of air bottles. They managed to dive the last section and get through into the chamber where the missing party were on a ledge above the water.” Rescuers find Thai boys who were trapped in cave for nine daysFootage of the moment 12 missing boys and their football coach were finally located in a flooded cave in Thailand. They had been missing for nine days Subscribe to Guardian News on YouTube ► bit.ly/guardianwiressub Rescue of boys trapped in Thai cave could take months, military warns ► theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/03/rescue-of-boys-trapped-in-thai-cave-could-take-months-military-warns Support the Guardian ► theguardian.com/supportus The Guardian ►… 2018-07-02T19:02:06.000Z “How many of you?” the men asked the boys. They responded “Thirteen!” “Thirteen?” says Volanthen. “Brilliant.” One of the men told the boys the rescue would have to wait at that time, saying: “Not today. There’s two of us. We have to dive. We are coming. OK? Many people are coming. We are the first.” Now, the expert cave divers from Great Britain “will guide the trapped football team and their coach out of the flooded Thai cave with support from Thai Navy SEALs,” reports ABC.net.au. They are part of a much larger team. According to CNN, five SEAL divers from Thailand and 13 international divers are involved in the rescue. NewsChannelAsia reports that more than “90 divers participated in the Sunday evacuation. About 50 of them came from different countries across the world and the rest are Thai.” 2. Rick Stanton Is a Retired Firefighter Who Became Interested in Diving as a Teenager Rick Stanton, 57, became interesting in diving when he wasn’t much older than the Thai boys are now. He hails from Coventry, England, where he is a retired firefighter, according to ABC.net.au. He’s been a cave diver for more than 35 years. The site reports that he was only 16 or 17 when he became entranced by diving after watching a television program called Underground Eiger, which featured cave diving. Today, a widely regarded world expert in cave diving, Stanton is a popular speaker on the topic, according to Divernet. “When people see a blank wall, they think it’s the end of the cave,” he explained to Divernet of cave diving. “They’re already at their limit and want to find an end so they can say: We can go back now. But you need to look closer, as if you had a second pair of eyes.” According to Divernet, at university, he joined the caving and diving clubs and started diving in a Yorkshire River. He told the publication that cave diving is about an interest in caves first, saying, “Diving is just a means to an end, a way of getting to bits of cave you can’t get to otherwise.” He compared diving a cave to a jigsaw puzzle. He said in the 2007 article that he had been a firefighter for 18 years. He described how he approaches a dive in the interview, saying, “I see myself doing the dive, not like a film or a snapshot but in critical segments, what I’m doing at set points, how I’m doing it, and what happens if something goes wrong.” You can read the full Divernet interview with Rick Stanton here. 3. John Volanthen Is an IT Consultant Who Runs Marathons John Volanthen, at 47, is the younger of the British cave diving pair. According to ABC.net.au, he is an IT consultant from Bristol, England. A profile of him says he “first started caving with the Scouts in 1982,” and is of partial Swiss descent. He is called “Volleyball” as a play on his name. According to The Guardian, Volanthen is a computer engineer and marathon runner. Both men are part of the South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team. In 2013, Volanthen told The Sunday Times, “The flight response now isn’t always appropriate. Panic and adrenaline are great in certain situations but not in cave-diving. The last thing you want is any adrenaline whatsoever.” The Sunday Times added, “Volanthen lies in bed reaching for various imaginary tubes and switches — he has reached the point where it is all instinctive.” Volanthen runs marathons and Ultra marathons, according to an online profile of him, which also describes him as a network engineer. He joked of the reason he runs: “only really run so I can eat more biscuits! Actively seeking sponsorship from Mcvities!” His mother Jill told BBC she has “absolute pride” in her son’s decision to help the Thai boys. 4. The Pair Have Been Involved in Other Rescues Stanton and Volanthen have worked together on cave rescues before. It hasn’t always had a positive ending. According to The Guardian, they worked to find French diver Eric Establie, “who was trapped by a silt avalanche inside the Ardeche Gorge, near Marseille.” His body was found in the cave. France24 called Establie “an experienced French cave explorer on a mission to map an underground tunnel complex.” The two British cave divers “found his body 780 metres from the mouth of the cave and 70 metres beyond a rock fall that had blocked his exit,” the site reports. In 2014, Stanton was involved in an effort to retrieve the bodies of two Norwegian cave divers who died in a massive cave system. According to BBC, Stanton “was also involved in the rescue of six British cavers in Mexico in 2004.” In 2004, Stanton described the perils of cave diving to BBC, saying, “When people landed on the moon they had a map, they knew where they were going but in a cave if you’re beyond the known limit of the cave, nobody knows where it goes, you never know what will happen round the corner.” 5. Stanton Is Considered the Face of British Cave Diving & Both Men Have Set Records According to The Guardian, Rick Stanton is an elite cave diver who “is the face of British cave diving, and the best cave diver in Europe.” Martyn Farr, who knows both men, described them to BBC as “calm, very collected, very organised and extremely disciplined, consummate professionals.” They are recipients of a Royal Humane Society medal.<doc-sep>
The final two have been successfully extracted from the Tham Luang cave complex in Thailand on Tuesday (July 10), where a total of 12 boys and their 25-year-old coach had been trapped since June 23. This was the third consecutive day of a risky dive rescue that started Monday morning (July 9) local time. Rescuers extracted the first four members of the soccer team on July 8 and the next four the following day. Chiang Rai acting Gov. Narongsak Osottanakorn said today that the rescue operation had gotten quicker as the divers have become more skilled and confident, the Washington Post reported. "I do expect all of them will come out today," said Narongsak, according to the Post. Reportedly, the press center nearby erupted in cheers. Before the rescued boys and their coach can finally be reunited with family and friends, they must stay quarantined in the hospital to ensure they didn't pick up any diseases in the cave complex. Caves, it turns out, are petri dishes for pathogens, Live Science previously reported. Eighteen divers reportedly entered the cave Sunday morning around 10 a.m. local time. (Many more divers, nearly 100, have reportedly been helping with the rescue operation.) The fifth boy was brought out late on Monday local time, while the other three followed by evening, the Washington Post reported. Conditions were reportedly as perfect as could be expected and the mission went faster than expected, Osottanakor said on Monday, according to news reports. Though many had said they considered a diving rescue a last resort, as the boys have no diving experience and some were malnourished and experiencing exhaustion from their time in the cave, rain began falling in the area on Saturday. Officials were concerned that monsoon rains, which were forecast over the weekend, would make such a rescue essentially impossible. "If we don't start now, we might lose the chance," Osottanakorn said Sunday, according to news reports. As water levels rise in the cave, the distance the boys would have to dive increases. [The Very Real Risks of Rescuing the Boys Trapped in a Thai Cave] Here's a look at how the divers and trapped soccer team will make their way out of the Tham Luang cave complex. (Image credit: Gal Roma & Laurence Chu/AFP/Newscom) The boys and their coach hiked into the Tham Luang cave complex when it was relatively dry, only to be walled in after monsoon rains triggered a flash flood. This past week, water levels have been declining in the cave, as the rain has held off and officials have continued to pump water out of the cave system. As such, the first few pockets the team will need to move through are now dry, according to a report by the Washington Post, which also reported that oxygen levels have stabilized (they were falling to near-dangerous levels). "The shorter the dive distance, the increased margin of safety," George Veni, executive director of the National Cave and Karst Research Institute and president of the International Union of Speleology, told Live Science. "Also, air bells may develop along the way to create a series of two or more shorter dives instead of one long dive," Veni said, adding that "lower water levels means the force of the water is less." [Photos: Rescuers Race Against Time to Save Soccer Team Trapped in Thai Cave] Rescue workers are seen at the Tham Luang cave area on July 8, 2018; this morning, divers entered the cave complex on a risky mission to extract the team, one by one. (Image credit: LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP/Getty Images) One of the big concerns with cave diving is the violently flowing water that can make a short dive risky for even an expert, said Edd Sorenson, a regional coordinator in Florida for the nonprofit International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery. (Sorenson is also the safety officer for the National Speleological Society-Cave Diving Section.) The Thai Navy SEALS were teaching the trapped soccer team the basics of cave diving, but as recently as Friday, Gov. Osottanakorn said the kids were not adequately trained to make the risky dive out. The team is reportedly holed up in a chamber about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) into the cave, with experienced divers taking about 11 hours up and back during delivery missions over the past week. "Diving in caves is very risky; it's very unforgiving. If something goes wrong, you can't go up for air," Veni told Live Science earlier in the week.