Boys’ journey from their underground prison out into the light

A timeline from when the 12 boys and their soccer coach were lost in the Tham Luang cave complex.

Medics ready to receive the boys at the hospital in Chiang Rai. Picture: AAP

June 24

Park officials and police find handprints and footprints believed to belong to the boys. Relatives start to keep a vigil outside the Tham Luang cave complex in Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in the Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand.

June 25

Thai Navy SEAL divers enter the cave searching for the boys. Makeshift shrines are set up for parents to pray and make offerings as heavy rains continue.

June 26

Divers reach a T-junction several kilometres inside the cave but are forced back by rushing floodwaters that clog a narrow crevice near an elevated air pocket called “Pattaya Beach”, where the boys are believed to have retreated.

June 27

A team of more than 30 US military personnel from the US Pacific Command arrive, including pararescue and survival specialists. They are joined by three British diving experts who enter the cave but quickly retreat in the face of heavy flooding. An Australian Federal Police team also joins the search effort.

 

June 28

The underwater rescue is halted after downpours bring fast-moving floods inside the cave. Water pumps are shipped in to drain the rising, murky floodwaters and drones are dispatched to help find new vents in the cave roof.

June 29

Thailand’s junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha visits the site, leads a meditation and jokes and cooks with relatives, asking them not to give up hope.

June 30

A break in the rain allows divers to reach further inside the cave but they are still a long distance from where the boys are believed to be.

July 1

Divers inch further into the cave, as an operating base is set up inside and hundreds of air tanks and other supplies are pulleyed in.

July 2

Finally, a miracle: the 12 boys and their coach are found alive late Monday evening by British divers John Volanthen and Rick Stanton about 400m beyond Pattaya Beach. Crowds at the teeming rescue site cheer the good news, but attention soon turns to the difficult task of getting the boys out safely.

July 3

Much-needed food and medical supplies — including high-calorie gels and paracetamol — reach the 12 boys and their coach as rescuers prepare for the possibility they will remain in the cave for some time.

July 4

Officials say the group are being taught how to use diving masks and breathing apparatuses. Teams pump out water around the clock as more rain is forecast for the days ahead.

July 5

In a sign of increased urgency, authorities say expected rains may force a complex rescue quicker than first thought. A team of bird’s nest collectors scour the mountainside in search of new openings into the cave roof.

July 6

A diver helping to establish an airline to the boys dies after passing out while returning from the chamber. Saman Kunan’s death raises serious doubts over the safety of attempting a rescue through the cave’s cramped and waterlogged passageways. Thailand’s Navy SEAL commander says oxygen levels inside have dropped. He warns the window of opportunity to free the youngsters is “limited”, in the first official admission that the rescue cannot wait out the monsoon rains.

July 7

Rescue operation chief Narongsak Osottanakorn says it is “not suitable” yet to have the boys dive to safety. A scrawled message emerges from the team’s coach, offering his “apologies” to their parents. The head of the rescue mission says more than 100 vents are being drilled into the mountainside in a frantic bid to reach the boys. But Australian doctor Richard Harris assesses them fit to be evacuated.

July 8

Divers lead four of the boys out of the cave complex as night falls, sending them to the hospital. Narongsak says they are “safe”. Narongsak says late in the evening that the rescue mission will not start again for at least another 10 hours to give time for oxygen and other supplies to be replenished.

AFP