The 12 children and their trainer, who are trapped in an underground cave in Thailand, have pointed out the efforts to save them. The authorities describe the situation as a race against time to avoid death.
As cave experts from all over the world come together in the Tham Luang Nang Non Cave, the inevitable monsoon rains in northern Thailand have made the rescue efforts increasingly grim. A former Thai Navy diver died on Thursday during the rescue operation after running out of oxygen while trying to deliver air tanks.
USA Today, through interviews and research, compiled this list of questions and answers to address why the mission is so difficult:
If saviors know where the boys are, can not a drill be used to open a hole from above and get the boys out?
The place where the children and their coach are located is about half a mile away, usually made of solid rock. The mountainous area above the cave consists of a large jungle with few access roads.
Forrest Wilson, the head diver of the National Cavern Rescue Commission, who has 50 years of experience in cave diving, including several rescues, said that drilling from the top of the cave was not impossible. But the maps of the caves are not accurate enough to identify exactly where to drill.
"It will take a long time to drill a half mile of a cave," Wilson said. "I do not think there is time."
Is not there a way, with modern technologies, that rescuers have received the boys more exactly from above?
Yes, there is a radio-cave locator and it is basically a beacon that emits a radio wave outside the cave and allows people to know from the outside where the lighthouse and its people are located.
It is not clear whether the Thai authorities use that lighthouse or if they do something in the relief effort. Because drilling such a heavy rock would take weeks, a precise position is probably a controversial issue.
This is a big cave, why do saviors worry about oxygen like this?
The ventilation from the surface is bad. There is simply not enough air in the cave room to keep 12 children and an adult for long. Rescuers are trying to direct a line of oxygen from the mouth of the cave to the chamber where humans are trapped, but they are about three miles.
The oxygen content in the cave is estimated at around 15% and decreases (the normal oxygen content is about 21%). A low oxygen content means that simple tasks such as thinking and basic physical exertion are increasingly tiring.
