Tham Luang & Nutty Putty Cave: Trapped Underground
The 2018 Thai cave rescue at Tham Luang, a caver pinned for 18 hours in a limestone S-bend, and Nutty Putty Cave in Utah, told in two parts. Three real cave rescues, start to finish. Content note: the Nutty Putty Cave story ends in a death.
The cases: Tham Luang cave, Thailand, June 2018; Nutty Putty Cave, Utah, November 2009.
Tham Luang: the cave accident the whole world watched
On 23 June 2018, 12 boys aged 11 to 16 and their 25-year-old coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, went into Tham Luang cave. A flash flood blocked the only way out. Nine days later, about two and a half miles from the entrance, all 13 were found alive.
Pinned in rock for 18 hours
Pinned in a limestone S-bend, Mark waited while rescuers drilled the passage wider in shifts through the night. After 18 hours without moving, he slid free at a quarter to six in the morning on 8 October.
Nutty Putty Cave, Part 1: headfirst into a 10-inch crack
On 24 November 2009, John Edward Jones pushed into an uncharted passage of Nutty Putty Cave, 400 feet from the entrance and about 100 feet down, and slid headfirst into a fissure only eight inches across at its narrowest.
Nutty Putty Cave, Part 2: the rescue
Inside the rescue: a team of 100 rigging pulleys at every turn, John hanging upside down for hours, and why the cave was sealed for good.
Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:21 Tham Luang: the cave accident the whole world watched
4:19 Pinned in rock for 18 hours
7:40 Nutty Putty Cave, Part 1: headfirst into a 10-inch crack
12:28 Nutty Putty Cave, Part 2: the rescue
16:18 Subscribe to Caving Stories
Watch this episode on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaL9cuyAT6I
Watch the original stories on YouTube:
The cave accident the whole world watched
Stuck underground, and nobody knew where
He went headfirst into a 10-inch crack
The worst position you can be in underground
Full transcript:
https://pub-413c1fc5107e439dbec7a1f1c322ed45.r2.dev/transcripts/ep01.vtt
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Produced by Caving Stories. Narrated with a synthetic voice (Microsoft en-US-AndrewNeural).
