Qualla: Tham Luang Cave Rescue

Tham Luang Cave Rescue: Introduction

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The diver smelled them before he saw them. On July 2, 2018, after nine days of searching through flooded tunnels beneath Doi Nang Non -- the "Mountain of the Sleeping Lady" on the Thai-Myanmar border -- British cave diver John Volanthen surfaced in a dark chamber and caught the scent of thirteen people who had been trapped underground without food for over a week. He swam toward the smell, and his headlamp found twelve boys and their coach huddled on a narrow rock shelf, four kilometers from daylight. "How many of you?" he asked. "Thirteen," came the answer. "Brilliant."

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Tham Luang Cave Rescue: Into the Mountain

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

It started as an ordinary Saturday. On June 23, 2018, twelve members of the Wild Boars, a junior football team from Chiang Rai province, finished practice and followed their 25-year-old assistant coach, Ekkaphon Kanthawong, into Tham Luang Nang Non, a karstic cave complex they ha...

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Tham Luang Cave Rescue: Nine Days of Silence

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

What followed was an agonizing search. Thai Navy SEALs arrived on June 25 but found the water so murky that even with lights they could see nothing underwater. Teams from the United States Air Force, the Australian Federal Police, and the British Cave Rescue Council converged on ...

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Tham Luang Cave Rescue: The Impossible Calculation

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Finding the boys alive was a relief, but extracting them posed a problem no one had solved before. The group was four kilometers inside the mountain, past passages so narrow the tightest squeeze measured just 38 centimeters wide. The dive to reach them took six hours against the ...

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Tham Luang Cave Rescue: Sedated Through the Dark

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The solution was radical and unprecedented. Australian anaesthetist Richard Harris, a cave diving specialist, proposed sedating the boys with ketamine to render them fully unconscious for the journey out. The Thai government granted Harris diplomatic immunity in case anything wen...

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Tham Luang Cave Rescue: Everyone Out

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On July 8, the first four boys emerged. On July 9, four more. On July 10, the final four boys and coach Ekkaphon were brought out as water levels in Chamber 3 began rising behind them. The rescue had involved 10,000 people, more than 100 divers, representatives from roughly 100 g...

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