Elon Musk offers engineers to rescue trapped Thai football team

  • 07/07/2018
The boys in the cave.
The boys in the cave. Photo credit: Thai Navy Seal

Elon Musk and his companies have become involved in the attempted rescue of 13 people trapped in a cave in Thailand.

A football team of 12 adolescent boys and their 25-year-old coach have been trapped in the cave since the end of June. Extracting them has proved to be a challenge though, as the trip there involves a very complicated dive.

None of the boys can swim, let alone scuba dive, and on Friday night (NZ time), an experienced diver reportedly died due to lack of oxygen, trying to navigate through the cave.

Rescuing the boys has become a priority, due to falling oxygen levels in the cave.

Musk announced on Twitter he would be happy to help out with the rescue efforts and could use his drilling exercise - The Boring Company - to help out.

"Boring Co has advanced ground penetrating radar & is pretty good at digging holes," he wrote. "Don't know if pump rate is limited by electric power or pumps are too small.

"If so, could dropship fully charged Powerpacks and pumps."

He also suggested a nylon tube could be used to pump oxygen into the cave.

A spokesperson for The Boring Company confirmed to the BBC that it was working to send people over to Thailand, after speaking to the Government about what it could help.

"We are speaking with the Thai government to see how we can help and we are sending SpaceX/Boring Company people from the US to Thailand today to offer support on the ground," it said.

"Once we confirm what exactly will be helpful to send or do, we will. We are getting feedback and guidance from the people on the ground in Chiang Rai to determine the best way for us to assist their efforts."

Newshub.