A British cave diver who was instrumental in the rescue of 12 children trapped in a northern Thailand cave yesterday said he is considering legal action after the entrepreneur Elon Musk called him a “pedo” on Twitter.
Vernon Unsworth, 63, said he was “astonished and very angry” at the attack, for which Musk offered no evidence or basis.
The billionaire initially doubled down on the comments made on social media, but has since deleted them.
Photo: Reuters
Unsworth told journalists at the cave site, where a cleanup operation is under way, the remarks about him were an attack on the entire rescue crew.
“I believe he’s called me a pedophile,” he said. “I think people realize what sort of guy [Musk] is.”
Asked if he would consider taking legal action, he told reporters: “Yes, it’s not finished.”
Musk was angrily responding to an interview Unsworth gave on Sunday in which he said a child-sized submarine the Tesla chief executive delivered to the cave site last week “had absolutely no chance of working.”
“He had no conception of what the cave passage was like,” Unsworth said in the interview. “The submarine, I believe, was about 5 feet 6 inches [1.7m] long, rigid, so it wouldn’t have gone round corners or round any obstacles.”
In a bizarre series of tweets on Sunday, Musk said he would produce a video proving his submarine would have been able to reach the children and in a comment directed at Unsworth, added: “Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.”
When a Twitter user pointed out that Musk was “calling the guy who found the children a pedo,” the billionaire responded: “Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.”
Unsworth, who lives in Thailand, was among the first cave divers on the scene in Mae Sai after the boys from the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach became trapped inside on June 23.
Rescuers have said he used his knowledge of the cave system and networks in the cave diving community to marshall a response that was crucial in locating the boys 10 days later, and helping to free them last week.
Unsworth said he had saved copies of Musk’s tweets and believed he had “lost the plot.”
“I have a lot of support from people around the world astonished by his unfounded comments,” he said.
He had not had contact with Musk throughout the rescue operation nor since — a situation he hopes will not change.
“I don’t know the guy, never met the guy, and don’t want to meet the guy,” he said.
Musk had already attracted criticism for his approach to the Thai rescue after Narongsak Osatanakorn, head of the joint command center, said the mini-submarine was sophisticated, but not practical for the operation.
Musk responded by saying Osatanakorn was “not the subject matter expert” and that he had been “inaccurately described as rescue chief” and should have been labeled the “former Thai provincial governor.”
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