A Bristol man who was part of a pair of cave divers who pulled off the remarkable rescue of 13 people from a flooded cave system in Thailand have been given honorary degrees from the University of Bristol. The operation led by John Volanthen, from Bristol, and Rick Stanton, from Coventry, has been described as one of the greatest rescues of all time.
The unlikely heroes were called in by the Thai Government after heavy rain marooned 12 members of a junior football team and their assistant coach in a cave complex in the north of the country. The rescue involved 5,000 people, with Mr Volanthen and Mr Stanton leading the risky search sorties.
The pair had to navigate 2.5km of constricted underwater passageways, in near zero visibility, against a fast flowing, debris-strewn current. On July 2, 2018, nine days after the search started, the 12 stranded boys and their coach were found.
