The group had prepared to remain inside the cave for several days due to the difficulty of entering and exiting, but were not equipped for a longer stay, Paasi added.
Since locating them, Paasi and Thai diver Norrased Palasing have returned to deliver food and water, pulling supplies through the labyrinthine cave system.
“IF CLAUSTROPHOBIA HAD A FORM”
The cave passages are so narrow that divers have to be “slim”, “hard-headed” and weigh “less than 70kg or 60kg” to navigate them, Paasi told ABC.
He said that the men are about 300m into the cave, with the final 30m flooded.
“If claustrophobia had a form, this would be it,” Paasi said, describing how rescuers must “wriggle through like a worm” to get to the flooded chamber.
“Moving inside the tunnels – hundreds of metres of tunnels – is done by fingertips or toe-tips,” he said.
“You take a tank in your hand and you reverse into a hole that you can barely fit your chest in.
“It’s a really dangerous way of diving. If something happens, you are so deep in the ground, behind such long, tight tunnels, that you’re pretty much on your own.”
