Tech billionaire Musk brings 'Wild Boar' mini-sub to Thai cave rescue

CHIANG RAI (Thailand) — Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who had proposed using a "tiny, kid-size submarine" to rescue 12 boys and their football coach trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand, arrived on site on Tuesday (July 10) with a "mini-sub" made from rocket parts.

However, the lead rescue official, Mr Narongsak Osottanakorn, was quoted by a Thai media report saying that the equipment would not be used as it was "not practical" for the mission. Eight boys have been rescued so far, with hopes that the remaining five people would be freed on Tuesday.

The Khaosod news website quoted Mr Narongsak saying: "His equipment is technologically complex and advanced, but we cannot bring it into the cave for this mission.”

Mr Musk wrote on Twitter on Tuesday that he had named the submarine "Wild Boar", after the boys' football team.

"Just returned from Cave 3. Mini-sub is ready if needed," he added. "Leaving here in case it may be useful in the future. Thailand is so beautiful."

The boys and their coach have been trapped in the cave system in the country's north for about two weeks.

Mr Musk, the chief executive of Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies Corp, had floated a number of ideas on Twitter on how to bring the stranded team to safety. On Saturday, he suggested a rescue employing "a tiny, kid-size submarine" using the liquid oxygen transfer tube of a Falcon rocket as the hull.

"Light enough to be carried by two divers, small enough to get through narrow gaps. Extremely robust," he wrote on Twitter.

His engineers took about eight hours to construct the "mini-submarine". On Monday, Mr Musk posted a series of videos on Twitter demonstrating how the device could be used in the rescue operation, where divers have to navigate flooded passages and very narrow openings.

According to Khaosod, Mr Musk arrived in Chiang Rai on Monday night, and met briefly with Thai prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha at the local airport. After the meeting, the entreprenuer left for the cave site where he and his engineers delivered the mini-submarine and gave engineering advice.

Mr Musk is due to be in Shanghai at an event with the government on Tuesday, as the US-China trade war upends the world's largest market for electric vehicles.

He also plans to visit Beijing on Wednesday and Thursday, according to people familiar with his travel plans.

Tesla has been working on setting up a production facility in China for more than a year. That effort is getting renewed urgency because the US and China have increased tariffs on vehicles.

Tesla has raised prices of Model S sedans and Model X crossovers in China by as much as US$30,000 after Beijing imposed additional duties on American-built autos, putting its vehicles beyond the reach of more consumers in its No. 2 market globally. BLOOMBERG