Expert divers from Mid Wales rescue team lead way in finding 12 boys and football coach trapped in Thailand cave

Today members of the team, who normally lead rescues across Wales and the Midlands, spoke of the euphoria they felt when the boys were found.

Experts Richard Stanton and John Volanthen are part of the South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team, which covers Powys and works closely with the neighbouring Midlands Cave Rescue Organisation. They were flown out with another UK expert Robert Harper to take part in the rescue operation.

The three were today still underground as work continued to get the boys out.

But vice chairman of the British Cave Rescue Council Bill Whitehouse, who is in touch with the team, said: “It was quite a moment when we received the news the team had managed to find the boys. They went in and they had to go through about 1,500 metres of partly flooded and partly open passage, you know bits of flooded passage, then bits above water and so forth.

“They told me it was a bit of a ‘gnarly dive’, which means there were complications and problems – quite a strong flow – so they were having to swim against the current and pull themselves along the walls.

“The visibility in the water would not have been very good but they had been diving over the weekend, since conditions got better and this was the last of the dives.”

“We were hoping when they went in about 6.30am that it would be the day when we might learn something one way or the other but still about 4pm, when we got the message they had been found."

The Thai football team-mates have said they are healthy in a newly released video.

The 12 boys and their coach are seen sitting with Thai navy Seals in the dark cave with their visibly skinny faces illuminated by the beam of a flashlight.

The boys, many wrapped in foil warming blankets, take turns introducing themselves, folding their hands together in a traditional greeting and saying their names and that they are healthy.

Mr Stanton and Mr Volanthen, who carry out much of their training in the Brecon Beacons, were filmed speaking to the boys after reaching them. The group had been stranded for 10 days and had run out of food.

The South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue team has branches across Mid Wales and trains regularly in our region.

The football group went missing more than 10 days ago, and more than 1,000 Thai soldiers have been deployed in the rescue operation, as well as experts from the US, China and Australia.

Over the weekend, those in charge of the search operation turned to the British, with Mr Volanthen, Mr Stanton and another diving expert, Robert Harper, all sent underground.

They are said to have been sent because they are the best at the job.

Videos and photographs have been posted online showing the pair talking to the group, who are asking what day it is and if they can get some food. The divers explain how they will be returning and that more people would be coming.

With conditions difficult and the monsoon season imminent, it is believed the group will need to learn to dive or wait months before the water in the caves recedes before the can get out.

They may need to have food sent in for at least four months, according to the Thailand military, which is trying to install power and telephone lines inside the cave to let the boys speak to their parents.

The pair from the South and Mid Wales team both have day jobs, with Mr Stanton a firefighter in Coventry and Mr Volanthen an IT consultant in Bristol. They operate across the region, often training in the Brecon Beacons. They operate across Powys and also work closely with the Midlands Cave Rescue Organisation.

Both men were part of the team sent to France in 2010 to rescue a trapped diver, after they French authorities specifically requested their assistance.

Other notable rescues include Mr Stanton being part of a rescue that involved 13 British divers in Mexico in 2004. He was made an MBE back in 2012 for his work, and in 2012 both men received a Royal Humane Society medal at Buckingham Palace in recognition of their rescue attempt in France.

The pair will now spearhead the rest of the operation, as authorities work out how to get the group out.

One option is to drill into the mountainside and airlift them to safety.