I'm more surprised by the fact that they went that far into the cave in the first place! The coach should be in prison now for putting so many kids in danger and be the cause of a rescue diver death!
It's hard to fault the team/coach, since they heeded the posted warnings. I have a feeling the signs will be changed after this.
We don't know if the coach led them in or if he just followed them.
We don't know how far in they went initially. Maybe they just went a bit inside the cave and then increasing water levels forced them further in.
At least he stayed with the boys. Imagine if no adult had been there.
Blaming the coach for the death of the rescue diver is completely uncalled for. There is causality, yes, but it was hardly foreseeable to the coach - if he really led them in - that they would get caught by flooding and that as a result of that a rescue attempt would be launched in which a diver would die.
But again: Maybe the kids went in there and the coach just followed with them. We assume that he was in charge, but we don't know. We don't know if he encouraged them to go in, or whether he tried to talk them out of it or something in between. If he encouraged them to go in, we don't know if he thought they would just enter the opening of the caves.
Some reports say that kids in that area regularly go to the caves. Maybe that's just what you do around there, like kids in America hanging out at a parking lot (which probably kills more kids annually) or kids hanging out at pools (in which way more kids probably drown than in caves). Maybe it's not considered so reckless.
Except as a tourist a couple of times, I have never been to such caves. I wouldn't think rain would be an issue. Like you, I have now read in the media that there were warning signs that said something about flooded caves during monsoon season, and maybe they saw the signs or should have seen the signs. Or maybe people in that area know that local caves flood during monsoon. I don't know. Three weeks ago I certainly wouldn't have thought of flooding as the obvious risk in a cave. I would probably have worried more about falling or slipping or snakes or earthquakes or getting lost.
And even if they did check the weather forecast, would they have known that caves would be flooded? In the last few days, every meteorologist in the world has looked into whether that mountain in Thailand would get rain and experts have tried to guess what it would mean for the flooding in the caves and the ongoing rescue mission. But although it rained it didn't mean that the water raised much. Maybe these people go to the caves regularly while it rains and it's not a problem.
We simply don't know enough to blame the coach.
Even during the rescue, the forecast said Chiang Rai was going to have a heavy rain for the whole week (thus the reason they started the operation few days ago), but it has been pretty dry so far.
I have recently (within the last few years) heard stories like "I won't help that person because their relatives will sue me if they die".
This is an ugly and poisonous attitude. I don't usually downvote for pure spite... I did just now.
Is prison really needed? Didn't he pay enough for his crime?
There have been discussions about what responsibility people who act recklessly and put the rescuers in harms way should take (unprepared mountain climbers/ people who don't evacuate storms).
I too was transfixed by the maps and cave cross sections and did wonder how they got in that far.
The parents public statement to the coach was not to assign blame.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/07/parents-boys-tr...
They went in the cave well before the period of time the warnings said not to, they did nothing wrong.
There are always situations that require rescue that are not the fault of the victim. We thus need prepared rescuers, and the best preparation is real situations. The problem with a simulation is it is unethical to send someone out without enough food/shelter to potentially survive. Thus you never get a real race against the clock where you have to make life or death decisions without enough information.
Suggesting that this incident was a good thing because it helped the rescue teams train is a bit odd.
It's tragic that he died. You aren't supposed to go down more than 1/3 of your air supply so you have the same amount to get back with plus a third for emergencies. In addition, he was literally carrying extra oxygen tanks. I don't know the full story, but from what I understand, he wasn't fouled -- just ran out of air. In that case, it seems like he put the victims ahead of himself by acting recklessly and paid the price.
I would at least wait to know if he endangered them or if he actually saved them by taking them that for in. For all I know if he hadn't been there they might've drowned in the flood trying to get out rather than go deeper inside.