Inside the risky cave dive that rescued a Thai soccer team
“There was no Plan B.” Meet the extreme diver behind 'The Rescue.'
In 2018, when 12 members of a boys’ soccer team and their coach were trapped by rising floodwaters deep in Thailand’s Tham Luang cave system, an expatriate British cave explorer handed Thai authorities a note with three names on it: Rick Stanton, Rob Harper, and John Volanthen.
“They’re the world’s best cave divers,” the note read. “Please contact them…Time is running out.”
Within 24 hours, the men were on the scene and within days they were plotting a daring rescue beyond the ability of even the world’s elite military teams. Over the next two weeks, the world watched, transfixed by live television feeds, as Stanton, the de factor leader of a dozen or so cave diving enthusiasts, worked with the
