MONROE COUNTY, Pa. -- As Thai Navy SEALS race to rescue a group of boys and their coach trapped in a cave in northern Thailand, Newswatch 16 reached out to a cave diving expert to gauge just how difficult the mission is.
Trace Malinowski has embarked on cave dives and rescue efforts all across the world. For a moment, he thought he and his team would be called to assist the efforts in Thailand.
He showed us some of the tactics divers and SEALS may take to get the youth soccer team out of that cave.
Imagine being trapped inside a cave, with the looming possibility that you may be stuck there for months. That's the predicament a youth soccer in Thailand team is in.
"The rains ended up creating flash flooding that came in behind them and cut them off. They were probably trying to avoid the incoming water and areas where the water was rising, so they kept going further and further and back into the cave," said Malinowski.
Malinowski is a cave-diving expert and scuba instructor who has gone on thousands of dives in his career. He says the challenges of getting out of the cave will be immense.
"This is going to be like hiking and scuba diving for a mile and a half out of the cave. So, they're going to have to end up coming out of cold water and hike for a bit, then end up in the water once again, so it's going to take a toll on them," he said.
"You need a guideline because you don't want to get off of the main path and waste time or get trapped in other underwater tunnels, so we have a guideline that's going to take us straight through the tunnel," Malinowski explained.
"If I were one of the SEALS leading one of the kids out, I'd be in front. You'd grab my arm and hold on. And we're just going to close our eyes, pretend you can't see anything and we're just going to follow the line out."
Given that it's monsoon season in Thailand, Malinowski says time is of the essence to get the boys and their coach out before water levels continue to rise.
"If the water table came up to the point where the entire cave is going to be underwater, it isn't a survivable situation."
Malinowski adds, another challenge the team will face is having to swim against the flow of the water, which makes matters more difficult, especially considering they could be weakened by being trapped in that cave without a steady dose of food and water.