May 26, 2026
Race Against Time: Laos Cave Rescue “Like Crawling Through A Drinking Straw”
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RSS Feed Laos officials believe the 7 villagers trapped in a cave while searching for gold are still alive, as day 7 of rescue operations continue despite torrential rain in the area. This week, members of the same team that rescued the 12 members of a soccer team and their coach back in 2018 arrived to assist in the efforts. Rescuers describe the thousand foot tunnel they are trying to access as less than 2 feet wide in some areas.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks, it is Tuesday, May twenty six and the world waits for another possible miracle. A search is underway for seven villagers who've been trapped in a cave and have not been heard from in a week. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:00:19
Speaker 2: Ropes.
00:00:20
Speaker 1: We first we think about that soccer team. Ye, this is the immediate thing we all think of Ropes. It's very similar in a lot of ways to that situation.
00:00:29
Speaker 2: It certainly is that was back in twenty eighteen, And in fact, there is a connection to that rescue operation because three of those trained expert rescuers have now been brought in to help with seven Lause villagers who are trapped in a flooded cave. So they have experience doing this type of delicate, dangerous, frankly frightening work to try and rescue these seven folks who went in a week ago looking for gold. Look, this is a very impoverished part of the world, and despite government officials begging people, urging people not to go into these caves, people still do it because they're trying to feed their families. And now we've got seven villagers who remain trapped in very narrow tunnels, and this all happened because of a landslide.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: And this seems impossible. Desperate and dangerous is one thing. It seems impossible what they're talking about they're having to do right now. But let's get you caught up. First of all, this was last Wednesday. These villagers, but they're described as and the local folks say this is what they were doing in there. But seven of them go into this cave an area. This is in the central part of the country, in a province there, but this is an area that you just mentioned. They've been told stay out of there. But as part of the hearing them describe this rescue. Now, I don't know how anyone would even go in there in the first place looking for anything.
00:01:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you have to actually, for first of all, traverse a two and a half mile hike in incredibly steep and rocky and dangerous terrain just to even get to this cave entrance. And so it became flooded with muddy water because they've had torrential rains. So a landslide happened blocked basically the way they went in. Nobody can go in that way. Here's the interesting thing though, according to government officials, they say they are confident that those seven villagers are still alive because there is air in the cave. They described it as they believe that these villagers are on an elevated ledge inside the cave that gets continuous airflow. So that's why they believe that these folks are still alive.
00:02:45
Speaker 1: But the area they're having to get to is roughly some hundred yards in so imagine. I think one of the rescuers used it at the analogy of it's like crawling through a straw, but that's the analogy. It's such a narrow pathway and they're having to do it on their obviously crawl. But the delicate part of this they haven't been able to go as far as they think these villagers are right, just haven't been able to make it yet. Water has something to do with it. You can't get a damn air tank in there. It's barely enough space for your own body to squeeze through. They say, you can't bring all that oxygen apparatus. This is wild.
00:03:22
Speaker 2: I am already pretty claustrophobic, and just hearing anyone, just even you describe it, then reading about this, I actually feel my chest like like I'm gasping for air just imagining this. But yeah, they describe it as an eleven hundred foot tunnel they have to go through, and some parts of it are just twenty three inches wide. Imagine that less than two feet in circumference. They're having to crawl their way through with water that is coming in because they actually had to stop rescue operations yesterday because they had more torrential come in. They could only get a couple hours of work in because it's just too damn dangerous for anyone to go in there.
00:04:06
Speaker 1: And I don't know how they're doing these robes with the water. I mean, this is an area of the world that's known for the torrential downpours quite frankly, so I don't know how the process is working. They're having to pump some water out as they keep getting new rain waters. I don't know how fast how quickly that process is rogues. But again, you can't just do your work because it gets continues to get complicated by mother nature.
00:04:30
Speaker 2: Yes, they're actually pumping water out of that cave system twenty four hours a day. That's the only way they're even able to get close to these villagers, and you know, have you seen some of the video. I actually had to stop looking because not only is it as narrow as we just described, but when you're crawling through there are sharp rocks everywhere, So there's just danger everywhere trying to navigate this tight space. And look, it's important to remember that that very dramatic twenty eighteen rescue of the soccer team, they were trapped for more than two weeks. That's pretty remarkable, and there was a tie diver who actually died in the rescue effort. So this is these folks who are going in there to try and rescue these seven villagers, are absolutely risking their lives to go in there and try and get them out. But there are some major issues for the folks who are in these conditions right now. Food actually isn't among them right now as of yet, you can go three weeks without food, not that it isn't uncomfortable, not that that's a situation anybody would want, but from what we can gather, they can't even get any kind of supplies to these folks.
00:05:44
Speaker 1: And the issue is water. The issue in these things is always fresh water. You can't not go that long three four or five days without water. So here's the issue we talk about all this water getting in there. They do not have supplies as far as we understand, but robes, they gotta be drinking something. Yes, they have to be drinking something.
00:06:04
Speaker 2: You have to have what's it the three, three and three you have to have. You have to have water within three days, you have to have food within three weeks. So yeah, they've obviously had to been drinking some of that water that is pouring in, and look, it's not clean. They don't have access to clean drinking water, and with that comes the risk of dehydration, further dehydration because if you drink something you shouldn't, if you get a bacteria in your gut, you're talking vomiting diarrhea, that's going to obviously go against your ability to survive because you're going to be quickly dehydrated. So clearly they have to be drinking that water. But there are also declining oxygen levels. They're not sure just how much oxygen is down in that cave. They're hoping that there's an airflow, but as you pointed out, they can't. Even the folks trying to rescue them can't bring any sort of air with them, but with some flooded parts of the cave. I don't know how they're pulling this off.
00:06:57
Speaker 1: And you said their expertise there saying they believe there's some air pocket yep of some kind down there and we better hope. I guess is that there has not been a sign of life. Do I have that right? It's only by their estimation, by their guesses, by their expertise. They believe they are somewhere where they could survive. It's not that they've seen any signs of survive.
00:07:21
Speaker 2: Correct, they have no proof of life. But what they do have is one member of the group who managed to escape before the exit was blocked, and he talked about how the group entered the cave on May nineteenth, so he was able to provide some information, and I'm sure through part of what he was able to tell local officials because obviously he went to go get help and said, hey, seven of us are trapped down there. I got out just before the exit was blocked. So he got out, but he was able to provide information that gives at least rescuers and the government officials their hope and belief that the other members of his group are still alive and are in an area where they can stay alive at least for some period of time before rescuers can get to them.
00:08:05
Speaker 1: We're coming up in a week. This is day seven now Robes. And look, we as desperate as it sounds, we actually have recent enough history to know that there is reason to have hope.
00:08:17
Speaker 2: Yep, yep. Those that other team to I think it was eighteen days they were down in those caves. And look, you do have declining oxygen levels, and officials were saying, compare it to what we know of altitude sickness, just to get an idea of what happens to the body. Even if they have airflow, it might not be it's almost certainly not the same kind of access to oxygen we have up here above ground. So they could be facing issues similar to altitude sickness where you've got damage to your lungs or even other organs, because carbon dioxide can build up and you can become exhausted, disoriented, and eventually even unconscious even though you're still alive. So they're they're dealing with that concern. Obviously there's cold conditions too down there. I mean, they've got all this water it's dark, so there's concern about hypothermia. So you've got hypothermia issues, you've got clean drinking water issues, you've got declining oxygen levels. And they even pointed out constant darkness. Constant darkness absolutely affects your body chemistry, your ability to make good decisions. It messes up your circadian rhythms and your perception, and you're just sensitive to everything. Your body becomes extremely sensitive. I wasn't even imagining that the darkness plays a toll as well on just the ability for these folks to stay alive.
00:09:35
Speaker 1: That's I don't know why. That's something I always think about because we see movies. In one of our favorite movies, happens to happen in a cave. It's a horror movie. But you can see obviously it's a movie because you can see everything, but Romes, there is not a glimmer of any light. This is as black as black is going to get when it comes to darkness. And I don't know what their battery situation was, how long there there are lights last? But Rome imagine you cannot see your hand in front of your face. There is no sunlight creeping in in any way, it is pitch black.
00:10:11
Speaker 2: I'm having trouble breathing hearing you describe.
00:10:13
Speaker 1: It in that clustered together, trying to survive together, trying to communicate, trying to I don't know, figure out where your supplies are. You can't see anything.
00:10:23
Speaker 2: And you don't know to have hope. You don't know. Hope isn't hope so motivating they I don't know what they're holding on too down there because we just don't know what's going on. But my god, I just put myself in that situation, as all of us, I think do when we read about what these folks are going through right now, and it's just hard to get your head around. And as we talked about just last week with the situation with those divers who were trapped in that cave, and you mentioned even a movie, a lot of times people think, okay, well, why would anyone go down there or go to these places to explore for tourism for an experience. That's not what these folks are doing. And when we come back, we'll talk about why these caves are so popular for these local villagers. And welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ, where rescue operations are underway and they are truly racing against time right now to try and get seven villagers rescued from a deep and narrow cave system in Laos. This is day seven of the rescue operation, and word is they believe these folks. This group went into these caves despite tremendous government warnings not to to try and find gold, to try and find minerals. This is a mineral rich cave system, but obviously it comes at an incredible risk to try and find something, anything to bring back to their families. This is an incredibly impovers area. As we said at the beginning of this episode, did you know the average per capita income in Laos two thousand to twenty five hundred dollars a year. That's hard to even get your head around.
00:12:14
Speaker 1: Well, and maybe that helps to better understand the desperation of climbing through a cave when you're not a professional, to try to literally find gold. That's all of this is known, This is done there, and this is again this isn't some major mineral mining country. Necessarily the resources aren't necessarily there an investment there, So it's not like some major mining capital of the world, but still people know it's there. Something is there, some big corporation hasn't dug it out yet, so maybe it's there waiting for us.
00:12:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one of those. It's this area that's gorgeous in its natural beauty. And I was actually just reading how just these past few years, the country of Laos is doing what it can to try and bring some of that tours. And we think about Highland, we think about Vietnam, this is a booming tourism industry. You and I have even talked about traveling to that part of the world. And Laos is also rich in beauty with its Buddhist temples and its hiking and its massive caving system, But they just haven't been able to break through to the tourism industry to let people know, Hey, come visit our country. It's gorgeous. If you're coming to Thailand or coming to Vietnam, visit Laos. So there really isn't the same type of industry, the same type of ability for people to make money through Western travel or just certainly people coming to their area to experience an area of the world that has such unbelievable natural richness and riches. But now you see what ends up happening. These folks, desperate to try and bring something back up, are stuck in this cavernous system that few people actually understand or know. I mean, I don't know how well mapped out even these areas are, but you're fighting against mother nature in the rainy season. This is just a rrible tragedy that we hope, hope ends with some good news soon. But it looks like they are still in operating under the belief that these folks can be rescued, and maybe we have I don't know, I mean, it's unclear how much time they have left at this point, but they will continue to pursue finding these folks and bringing in more people to try and help with the rescue efforts. They need folks from around the world to help, and certainly we're seeing that happen there in Laos. As the world now continues to wait and watch what happens to these seven villagers stuck in this massive case system. But we of course will keep our eye on the developing situation give you any updates as they come throughout the day, but we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Ami Roboch alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks, it is Tuesday, May twenty six and the world waits for another possible miracle. A search is underway for seven villagers who've been trapped in a cave and have not been heard from in a week. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:00:19
Speaker 2: Ropes.
00:00:20
Speaker 1: We first we think about that soccer team. Ye, this is the immediate thing we all think of Ropes. It's very similar in a lot of ways to that situation.
00:00:29
Speaker 2: It certainly is that was back in twenty eighteen, And in fact, there is a connection to that rescue operation because three of those trained expert rescuers have now been brought in to help with seven Lause villagers who are trapped in a flooded cave. So they have experience doing this type of delicate, dangerous, frankly frightening work to try and rescue these seven folks who went in a week ago looking for gold. Look, this is a very impoverished part of the world, and despite government officials begging people, urging people not to go into these caves, people still do it because they're trying to feed their families. And now we've got seven villagers who remain trapped in very narrow tunnels, and this all happened because of a landslide.
00:01:20
Speaker 1: And this seems impossible. Desperate and dangerous is one thing. It seems impossible what they're talking about they're having to do right now. But let's get you caught up. First of all, this was last Wednesday. These villagers, but they're described as and the local folks say this is what they were doing in there. But seven of them go into this cave an area. This is in the central part of the country, in a province there, but this is an area that you just mentioned. They've been told stay out of there. But as part of the hearing them describe this rescue. Now, I don't know how anyone would even go in there in the first place looking for anything.
00:01:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you have to actually, for first of all, traverse a two and a half mile hike in incredibly steep and rocky and dangerous terrain just to even get to this cave entrance. And so it became flooded with muddy water because they've had torrential rains. So a landslide happened blocked basically the way they went in. Nobody can go in that way. Here's the interesting thing though, according to government officials, they say they are confident that those seven villagers are still alive because there is air in the cave. They described it as they believe that these villagers are on an elevated ledge inside the cave that gets continuous airflow. So that's why they believe that these folks are still alive.
00:02:45
Speaker 1: But the area they're having to get to is roughly some hundred yards in so imagine. I think one of the rescuers used it at the analogy of it's like crawling through a straw, but that's the analogy. It's such a narrow pathway and they're having to do it on their obviously crawl. But the delicate part of this they haven't been able to go as far as they think these villagers are right, just haven't been able to make it yet. Water has something to do with it. You can't get a damn air tank in there. It's barely enough space for your own body to squeeze through. They say, you can't bring all that oxygen apparatus. This is wild.
00:03:22
Speaker 2: I am already pretty claustrophobic, and just hearing anyone, just even you describe it, then reading about this, I actually feel my chest like like I'm gasping for air just imagining this. But yeah, they describe it as an eleven hundred foot tunnel they have to go through, and some parts of it are just twenty three inches wide. Imagine that less than two feet in circumference. They're having to crawl their way through with water that is coming in because they actually had to stop rescue operations yesterday because they had more torrential come in. They could only get a couple hours of work in because it's just too damn dangerous for anyone to go in there.
00:04:06
Speaker 1: And I don't know how they're doing these robes with the water. I mean, this is an area of the world that's known for the torrential downpours quite frankly, so I don't know how the process is working. They're having to pump some water out as they keep getting new rain waters. I don't know how fast how quickly that process is rogues. But again, you can't just do your work because it gets continues to get complicated by mother nature.
00:04:30
Speaker 2: Yes, they're actually pumping water out of that cave system twenty four hours a day. That's the only way they're even able to get close to these villagers, and you know, have you seen some of the video. I actually had to stop looking because not only is it as narrow as we just described, but when you're crawling through there are sharp rocks everywhere, So there's just danger everywhere trying to navigate this tight space. And look, it's important to remember that that very dramatic twenty eighteen rescue of the soccer team, they were trapped for more than two weeks. That's pretty remarkable, and there was a tie diver who actually died in the rescue effort. So this is these folks who are going in there to try and rescue these seven villagers, are absolutely risking their lives to go in there and try and get them out. But there are some major issues for the folks who are in these conditions right now. Food actually isn't among them right now as of yet, you can go three weeks without food, not that it isn't uncomfortable, not that that's a situation anybody would want, but from what we can gather, they can't even get any kind of supplies to these folks.
00:05:44
Speaker 1: And the issue is water. The issue in these things is always fresh water. You can't not go that long three four or five days without water. So here's the issue we talk about all this water getting in there. They do not have supplies as far as we understand, but robes, they gotta be drinking something. Yes, they have to be drinking something.
00:06:04
Speaker 2: You have to have what's it the three, three and three you have to have. You have to have water within three days, you have to have food within three weeks. So yeah, they've obviously had to been drinking some of that water that is pouring in, and look, it's not clean. They don't have access to clean drinking water, and with that comes the risk of dehydration, further dehydration because if you drink something you shouldn't, if you get a bacteria in your gut, you're talking vomiting diarrhea, that's going to obviously go against your ability to survive because you're going to be quickly dehydrated. So clearly they have to be drinking that water. But there are also declining oxygen levels. They're not sure just how much oxygen is down in that cave. They're hoping that there's an airflow, but as you pointed out, they can't. Even the folks trying to rescue them can't bring any sort of air with them, but with some flooded parts of the cave. I don't know how they're pulling this off.
00:06:57
Speaker 1: And you said their expertise there saying they believe there's some air pocket yep of some kind down there and we better hope. I guess is that there has not been a sign of life. Do I have that right? It's only by their estimation, by their guesses, by their expertise. They believe they are somewhere where they could survive. It's not that they've seen any signs of survive.
00:07:21
Speaker 2: Correct, they have no proof of life. But what they do have is one member of the group who managed to escape before the exit was blocked, and he talked about how the group entered the cave on May nineteenth, so he was able to provide some information, and I'm sure through part of what he was able to tell local officials because obviously he went to go get help and said, hey, seven of us are trapped down there. I got out just before the exit was blocked. So he got out, but he was able to provide information that gives at least rescuers and the government officials their hope and belief that the other members of his group are still alive and are in an area where they can stay alive at least for some period of time before rescuers can get to them.
00:08:05
Speaker 1: We're coming up in a week. This is day seven now Robes. And look, we as desperate as it sounds, we actually have recent enough history to know that there is reason to have hope.
00:08:17
Speaker 2: Yep, yep. Those that other team to I think it was eighteen days they were down in those caves. And look, you do have declining oxygen levels, and officials were saying, compare it to what we know of altitude sickness, just to get an idea of what happens to the body. Even if they have airflow, it might not be it's almost certainly not the same kind of access to oxygen we have up here above ground. So they could be facing issues similar to altitude sickness where you've got damage to your lungs or even other organs, because carbon dioxide can build up and you can become exhausted, disoriented, and eventually even unconscious even though you're still alive. So they're they're dealing with that concern. Obviously there's cold conditions too down there. I mean, they've got all this water it's dark, so there's concern about hypothermia. So you've got hypothermia issues, you've got clean drinking water issues, you've got declining oxygen levels. And they even pointed out constant darkness. Constant darkness absolutely affects your body chemistry, your ability to make good decisions. It messes up your circadian rhythms and your perception, and you're just sensitive to everything. Your body becomes extremely sensitive. I wasn't even imagining that the darkness plays a toll as well on just the ability for these folks to stay alive.
00:09:35
Speaker 1: That's I don't know why. That's something I always think about because we see movies. In one of our favorite movies, happens to happen in a cave. It's a horror movie. But you can see obviously it's a movie because you can see everything, but Romes, there is not a glimmer of any light. This is as black as black is going to get when it comes to darkness. And I don't know what their battery situation was, how long there there are lights last? But Rome imagine you cannot see your hand in front of your face. There is no sunlight creeping in in any way, it is pitch black.
00:10:11
Speaker 2: I'm having trouble breathing hearing you describe.
00:10:13
Speaker 1: It in that clustered together, trying to survive together, trying to communicate, trying to I don't know, figure out where your supplies are. You can't see anything.
00:10:23
Speaker 2: And you don't know to have hope. You don't know. Hope isn't hope so motivating they I don't know what they're holding on too down there because we just don't know what's going on. But my god, I just put myself in that situation, as all of us, I think do when we read about what these folks are going through right now, and it's just hard to get your head around. And as we talked about just last week with the situation with those divers who were trapped in that cave, and you mentioned even a movie, a lot of times people think, okay, well, why would anyone go down there or go to these places to explore for tourism for an experience. That's not what these folks are doing. And when we come back, we'll talk about why these caves are so popular for these local villagers. And welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ, where rescue operations are underway and they are truly racing against time right now to try and get seven villagers rescued from a deep and narrow cave system in Laos. This is day seven of the rescue operation, and word is they believe these folks. This group went into these caves despite tremendous government warnings not to to try and find gold, to try and find minerals. This is a mineral rich cave system, but obviously it comes at an incredible risk to try and find something, anything to bring back to their families. This is an incredibly impovers area. As we said at the beginning of this episode, did you know the average per capita income in Laos two thousand to twenty five hundred dollars a year. That's hard to even get your head around.
00:12:14
Speaker 1: Well, and maybe that helps to better understand the desperation of climbing through a cave when you're not a professional, to try to literally find gold. That's all of this is known, This is done there, and this is again this isn't some major mineral mining country. Necessarily the resources aren't necessarily there an investment there, So it's not like some major mining capital of the world, but still people know it's there. Something is there, some big corporation hasn't dug it out yet, so maybe it's there waiting for us.
00:12:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's one of those. It's this area that's gorgeous in its natural beauty. And I was actually just reading how just these past few years, the country of Laos is doing what it can to try and bring some of that tours. And we think about Highland, we think about Vietnam, this is a booming tourism industry. You and I have even talked about traveling to that part of the world. And Laos is also rich in beauty with its Buddhist temples and its hiking and its massive caving system, But they just haven't been able to break through to the tourism industry to let people know, Hey, come visit our country. It's gorgeous. If you're coming to Thailand or coming to Vietnam, visit Laos. So there really isn't the same type of industry, the same type of ability for people to make money through Western travel or just certainly people coming to their area to experience an area of the world that has such unbelievable natural richness and riches. But now you see what ends up happening. These folks, desperate to try and bring something back up, are stuck in this cavernous system that few people actually understand or know. I mean, I don't know how well mapped out even these areas are, but you're fighting against mother nature in the rainy season. This is just a rrible tragedy that we hope, hope ends with some good news soon. But it looks like they are still in operating under the belief that these folks can be rescued, and maybe we have I don't know, I mean, it's unclear how much time they have left at this point, but they will continue to pursue finding these folks and bringing in more people to try and help with the rescue efforts. They need folks from around the world to help, and certainly we're seeing that happen there in Laos. As the world now continues to wait and watch what happens to these seven villagers stuck in this massive case system. But we of course will keep our eye on the developing situation give you any updates as they come throughout the day, but we always appreciate you listening to us. I'm Ami Roboch alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.