What To Know About The True Heroes Of The Thai Cave Rescue

The boys and their coach are out of the cave and well on the road to recovery. Still, the #ThaiCaveRescue was one of the biggest rescue operations in the world. Here's a lookback at the extraordinary mission.

16-18: No. of days members of Thai junior football team Wild Boars spent trapped inside the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai in Thailand. Twelve boys, aged 11 to 17, and their 25-year-old coach entered the cave on June 23 after soccer practice, intending to stay for just one hour. Heavy rains caused flooding that forced them to retreat further into the cave and they were eventually trapped there. A flurry of intense international interest and help saw the last of them getting rescued after a three-day mission.

At least 3: No. of football organisations who extended invitations for the Wild Boars to visit. FIFA president Gianni Infantino invited the team to Moscow for the World Cup Final, which the team couldn’t take up due to health reasons. Manchester United and FC Barcelona have also invited the team to their respective home stadiums.

1: Thai ex-navy seal who lost his life during the rescue mission. Saman Kunan, 38, ran out of air while underwater during an operation to deliver oxygen tanks to the boys and their coach and died on Jul 6.

15%: The level of oxygen in the space where the team was trapped. The usual amount in normal atmosphere is 21 per cent.

3: No. of team members who will be granted Thai citizenship. Two of the boys and their assistant coach are stateless as they come from tribes in an area between Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and China, where borders are unclear and people don’t hold passports.

2: No. of rescue mission-related tweets deleted by billionaire Elon Musk (above). He’d called British rescuer Vern Unsworth a “pedo” to his 22mil followers after the caver criticised a miniature submarine Musk had made for the rescue efforts and called it a “PR stunt”. When Twitter users called out Musk's attack on Unsworth as unfair, he wrote in another since-removed tweet, "Bet ya a signed dollar it's true."

1 hour: How long each boy mediated each time with their coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, before they were rescued. The coach trained as a monk for 10 years, and his imparting of meditation to the boys is thought to have played a pivotal role in their well-being while they were stranded and short of food and water.

5: No. of trapped survivors who were still stuck in the cave when Hollywood producer Michael Scott swooped to the scene to plot a movie project. Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M Chu is also reportedly developing his own Thai cave rescue movie.