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.”
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS