Thai cave rescue: 'We're not heroes,' says group including pair from Shropshire and Mid Wales

It emerged today that two of the group who risked their lives to free 12 schoolboys and their coach live in our region.

Civic engineer Mike Clayton is from Shropshire and Gary Mitchell lives in Machynlleth. Both are part of the South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team, which was called on by the Thai government for help.

As the team returned to a heroes’ welcome at Heathrow Airport, it was up to Rick Stanton to speak for the team.

Mr Stanton, from Coventry, is a key member of the team that trains and operates across Powys and Mid Wales.

He denied he was a hero and said he was using a “very unique skill set” to “give something back to the community”.

Mr Stanton and several other British divers had joined the rescue mission after the football team became trapped in an underground network in Chiang Rai province following monsoon rains.

The retired fireman and his colleague John Volanthen, from Bristol, were the first divers to reach the stranded group in the Luang Nang Non Cave.

They launched a mission to rescue the boys and their 25-year-old coach, which concluded on Tuesday after an 18-day ordeal. The operation claimed the life of Thai navy diver Saman Kunan, who died while replenishing oxygen canisters.

The rescue was particularly treacherous because the boys, aged 11 to 16, had to swim through tight spaces despite having no previous diving experience.

Speaking on his return to the UK, Mr Stanton said: “Are we heroes? No, we were just using a very unique skill set, which we normally use for our own interests and sometimes we are able to use that and give something back to the community.

“This was completely uncharted, unprecedented territory and nothing like this has been done. So, of course there were doubts.

“I knew that we had a good team, with good support from the Thai authorities, the caving community and rescue organisations, so we had the best we could do to make a plan work.”

Mr Stanton described his relief as he and Mr Volanthen discovered that the boys were still alive – nine days after they went missing deep within the labyrinth.

“Initially, of course, excitement, relief that they were still alive. As they were coming down the slope, we were counting them until we got to 13 ... unbelievable,” he said.

Chaos

“We gave them a little bit of extra light, they still had light, they looked in good health.

“Then, of course, when we departed, all we could think about was how we were going to get them out. So there was relief, tempered with uncertainty.”

Mr Stanton would not describe how his team rescued the children, saying it was “too detailed for this point in time”.

“The most important thing to have was a full face mask which had been applied inside with positive pressure to enable them to breathe and to be relaxed enough so not to feel any anxiety during the process,” he said.

“There was a lot of chaos but we were so task-orientated, focused, and we blanked that out and carried on with the job in hand, step by step, until we achieved success.” During the brief press conference at Heathrow, Mr Stanton declined to answer any medical questions but said: “They were carefully handled. There is a lot of responsibility, that is all I am prepared to say ... there is a lot of responsibility that an experienced diver could handle.”

Other members of the team returning to the UK were Chris Jewell and Connor Roe, both from Somerset; Josh Bratchley, from Devon and Jim Warny, from County Clare.

Mr Jewell said: “Our role was to help transport the boys under water through the cave to bring them out.

“The diving conditions were extremely challenging, there was poor visibility and responsibility for another human being’s life.

“It was a successful outcome and we played a part in an international effort.”

Mr Jewell said it was very hard to judge how close it came to being a very different outcome.

“The Thai authorities took a lot of steps to divert rivers on the mountain top which we believe bought us as lot of time to get this outcome,” he said.

As he left the press conference, Mr Stanton was asked if he would see the boys again.

He replied: “I will see them sometime in the future. It will be good to get closure.”