Northern Thailand's 2018 Cave Rescue - Panel Discussion & Book Launch: "The Cave"

(recorded February 20, 2019)

In July last year, the world was gripped by the rescue of the Wild Boar football team from a cave in northern Thailand. But with the drama occurring deep inside a mountain, much of the story went unreported.

This was an extraordinary event that captivated a vast number of people around the world – so it is hardly surprising that it has already been the topic of several books and that movies are also in production.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Southeast Asia correspondent Liam Cochrane spent three weeks in Mae Sai covering the cave rescue, one of those weeks stationed outside the cave entrance in the mud.

After the rescue, he spent many weeks piecing together the story of what really happened. He got exclusive access to the boys, British diver John Volanthen and a host of other players in the rescue. What emerged was a tale that was a lot more complex, more controversial and more daring than was thought – and reported – at the time.

His publisher, Harper Collins, says his book ‘The Cave’ features “never-before-reported details” garnered from interviews with the boys, their families, and rescue workers. It is an inspiring true story of how 12 members of the Wild Boar Academy Football Club and their coach survived nine days in a labyrinthine cave in the far north, and of “incredible men and women who pulled off one of the greatest rescues of all time”.

Liam Cochrane began his journalistic career in Cambodia in 2004 as a reporter, then as managing editor of the Phnom Penh Post. He freelanced in Nepal for two years and returned to Melbourne to host Connect Asia on ABC Radio Australia. Before coming to Bangkok, he was posted to Port Moresby, considered the ABC’s toughest correspondent assignment and, in another career highlight, was the only foreign reporter on Manus Island when Australia’s asylum-seeker detention centre was attacked in 2014.

Joining Liam are:

Ivan Karadzic:

Ivan is a Danish technical diving instructor based on Koh Tao. He volunteered his time at Tham Luang, arriving on the day the Wild Boars were found. Ivan used his cave diving skills to help bring air cylinders and other supplies into the cave, and took part in the first day of the rescues; and

Ruengrit Changkwanyuen (Pae):

An experienced diver, Pae knew the Thai Navy SEALs were operating beyond their training, and travelled to Chiang Rai province to assist. He helped teach the SEALs cave diving techniques, and became dive supervisor for the Euro Team, which included Ivan. He worked with the volunteers who were requesting and collecting equipment donated from companies and individuals across Thailand.

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