Thai cave rescue: Duangpetch Promthep's death shatters happiest of endings

We inactive bash not cognize what caused the abrupt decease of Duanpetch 'Dom' Promthep astatine the shot academy successful Britain to which helium had been truthful arrogant to triumph a assistance past year.

It casts, for the archetypal time, a bittersweet shadiness implicit a story which until present had not mislaid its powerfulness to inspire, to assistance the spirits.

The astonishing saga of the Thai boys rescued from the cave successful July 2018 was that rarest of things successful the quality business: a communicative with a flawlessly blessed ending.

When we archetypal got quality that a radical of Thai footballers had gone missing, I had dashed with my colleagues up to Chiang Rai, and past to the entranceway of the Tham Luang cave complex, carrying conscionable 3 days of clothes.

In my haste I had assumed fewer radical astir the satellite would attraction for long. The boys would beryllium found, oregon possibly they ne'er would. That would beryllium that. It was rather a misjudgement, and successful the mud-soaked conditions extracurricular the cave, I would travel to regret my packing decisions.

Five days later, with nary denotation that the boys were live oregon wherever they mightiness be, and Thai rescuers driven retired of the cave by rising flood waters, I was interviewed by a Thai tv team.

I recovered I was excessively affectional to respond. The boys were much oregon little the aforesaid property arsenic my 2 sons. Dom was conscionable 12 days older than my eldest. Reporting astir them time and night, seeing their bikes inactive chained to the railings by the cave, they had go precise precious lives.

Against each the evidence, each of america hoped against anticipation that they mightiness inactive beryllium alive.

And past that astonishing moment, erstwhile British divers John Volanthen and Rick Stanton recovered them, calling retired successful the dark, "how galore are you? Thirteen? Brilliant". It seemed thing little than a miracle.

The journalists astatine the cave tract multiplied quickly, acold much than it could accommodate. But we knew getting the boys retired would beryllium difficult. So difficult, successful fact, that the divers had told the Thai authorities getting adjacent fractional of them retired live should beryllium considered a success.

By present they were the astir celebrated boys successful the world. All of Thailand was rooting for them. For days the Thai authorities had pushed for a zero-risk enactment - leaving the boys determination until the monsoon rains stopped 4 months later, adjacent though they were warned this was a near-certain decease sentence. Their lives had go excessively precious.

And erstwhile they yet went for the high-risk, improvised rescue plan, and we watched the boys and their manager being brought out, heavy sedated, 1 by 1 implicit 3 days, it seemed intolerable they had each survived.

But they did. And wrong days they were charming the satellite successful their archetypal quality earlier the media, smiling, joking, knocking footballs around.

The Thai authorities took power astatine that point, starring the lucrative negotiations with Hollywood filmmakers and organising overseas trips. Yet nary of that ever spoiled them.

They remained small-town boys with a fewer large dreams - polite, grateful for the effort truthful galore had made to prevention them, and for the caller opportunities their communicative had brought them to question and study, but ever refreshingly down-to-earth. Even the fearfulness that fame would inevitably tarnish the fairy communicative proved unfounded.

When helium won the assistance to spell to Britain past year, Dom thanked Zico, the erstwhile Thai nationalist squad skipper who had arranged it, and promised to survey hard there.

"I volition bash my level best," helium wrote. No-one who watched him and his team-mates dealing truthful modestly with each the attraction that came their mode tin uncertainty that helium would person lived up to that promise.