Brit divers who rescued Thai cave boys found the trapped lads in the darkness by SMELL
HERO British divers who rescued the Thai boys trapped in a cave for over two weeks managed to trace the missing lads through SMELL, it has been revealed.
Diver John Volanthen from Bristol was one of a number of foreign expert divers involved in the rescue of the Wild Boars football team when they went missing in the cave on June 23.
Monsoon flooding cut off their escape and prevented rescuers from finding them for almost 10 days, but a team of 90 expert divers - 40 from Thailand and 50 from overseas - worked in the Tham Luang caves in Northern Thailand to get the boys and their coach out safely earlier this week.
, British diver John Volanthen said they used their sense of smell to find the boys.
He said: "It's been mentioned by some members of the press that it was luck, I would say that it's absolutely not the case.
"Our procedure in this situation is we're swimming along an underwater passage, wherever there is airspace we surface, we shout and also we smell. In this case, we smelled the children before we saw or heard them."
He continued: "The video you see is a part of the story. What you can't see is that on the opposite bank, we had already removed most of our equipment and we were preparing to go and find them.
"We could see where they were, we were just very pleased trying to establish how many of them were alright and as it turned out all of them were."
The divers guided the boys and their coach through dark, narrow passageways, some of which are no more than two feet (0.6 metre) wide, in order to escape the cave.
The first four boys were rescued on July 8 at around 6pm local time, and were taken to a field hospital near the cave.
A second rescue phase began on July 9 and a further four boys were rescued.
The third day of the mission successfully took place on July 11, leading to the rescue of the final group of boys and their coach.
The rescue process included walking, wading, climbing and diving using guide ropes.
Wearing full-face masks, which are easier for novice divers, each boy was accompanied by two divers, who also carried his air supply.
The toughest part of the escape was at a section named "T-Junction" or "choke spot", which was so tight that the divers had to take off their air tanks to get through.
After the tight spot, a cavern called Chamber 3 was turned into a forward base for the divers.
The boys could rest there before walking out to the entrance of the cave, where they were then taken to hospital in Chiang Rai.
They are thought to be doing well and are expected to make a full recovery.
Sadly, an elite Thai Navy SEAL rescue diver died on July 5 while attempting to save the group.
The Thai hero, named as Saman Kunan passed away after suffering a lack of oxygen as he attempted to swim back through the underground labyrinth after taking essential supplies to the school kids and their football coach.
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