British divers who found Thai boys no stranger to high-risk rescues
Richard Stanton and John Volanthen have day jobs as a firefighter and internet engineer but their hobby has made them specialists in these sorts of emergencies
Two British volunteer divers who helped find a youth football team trapped in a cave complex in Thailand have a history of difficult rescues around the world.
Richard Stanton and John Volanthen, who have day jobs as a firefighter and internet engineer respectively, negotiated a long and winding path through flooded caverns to find the 12 young boys and their coach nine days after they went missing.
“The British divers Rick and John were at the spearhead” of the forward search party, said Bill Whitehouse of the British Cave Rescue Council, an informal grouping of rescue teams around Britain.
“They managed to dive the last section and get through into the chamber where the missing party were on a ledge above the water.”
Whitehouse, who has spoken briefly to the team that also included a third Briton, Robert Harper, as well as other international and Thai experts, described the difficulties of the search.