CHIANG RAI, 18 February 2019: Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province will be closed to all visitors effective 19 February, the National News Bureau of Thailand reported at the weekend.
The closure will allow Navy SEALs to recover equipment that was left in the flooded cave following the international rescue mission that saved 13 members of the Wild Boar youth soccer team, who were tapped in the cave for more than two weeks last July.
Tham Luang-Khunnam Nangnon National Park chief Kawee Prasomphol said that surrounding areas in the national park would remain open to the public.
Located in Mae Sai district, Chiang Rai, thousands of domestic tourists have visited the pavilion built to celebrate the successful rescue that also has a statue of former Navy SEAL, Saman Gunan, who lost his life during the mission.
Opened last November, the memorial statue and pavilion stands adjacent to the cave entrance.
At the height of the New Year holiday officials said as many as 12,000 Thais visited the cave site. Prior to the heroic rescue, the national park attracted less than 100 visitors a day.
The NNT announcement declaring the 19 February closure could confuse visitors as the cave and the immediate approach path to the entrance has been off-limits and secured by steel mesh fencing since last July.
It appears the closure will now extend to the immediate area around the cave and the road leading from the national park gate to the pavilion and statue.
On the 17 January, a SEAL team and rescue workers, including British cave diver, Vernon Unsworth, inspected the cave’s interior to assess how the abandoned oxygen tanks, pumps and other equipment that has been submerged in the flooded passage ways and chambers since the rescue could be successfully removed ahead of the rainy season.
They entered the cave system, but only as far as the third chamber, well short of the location where the footballers took refuge for more than two weeks.
The cave system is usually flooded for around six months of the year during May to late October. However, due to an unusually heavy monsoon season this year, the cave remained flooded for a much longer period causing delays in the planned extraction of equipment.
