BELOW AND
BEYOND Victoria Police’s Search and Rescue Squad has gone to new levels to fine-tune its underwater diving skills and prepare for any situation. Like the rest of the world in June 2018, Search and Rescue Squad members were watching and studying the captivating images of 12 young Thai boys and their soccer coach trapped in a dark, muddy cave 800 metres below the surface of a mountain. The team became stranded in the cave after flash flooding caused by torrential tropical rain cut off their exit. Between them and freedom stood a daunting reality. The journey out of the cave was around 3 kilometres long and while half the escape would be carried out on foot, the other half would be traversed in or under water. Such were the dangers of the rescue mission, a former member of Thailand's elite Navy SEAL died while attempting to store oxygen tanks along the escape route.
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POLICE LIFE | WINTER 2019
That would be the only death of the ordeal, however, as the 12 boys and their coach were miraculously rescued from the cave in a dramatic three-day mission. The inspirational rescue highlighted the need for Victoria Police’s Search and Rescue Squad to work more closely with agencies from other states. The Victorian squad first began training with its South Australian counterpart in 1991 and continued to do so until about 2008. The cross-border training then endured an almost decade-long hiatus before resuming in 2017, prior to last year’s Thailand incident. While the Victorian Search and Rescue Squad hasn’t been required to work alongside South Australian officers on any recent large-scale operations, it is often called upon to help north of the border.
