It has been six days since the 12 Thai boys and their coach have been rescued and we are glad to hear that they are all doing really well in their recovery. Of course, it wouldn’t be possible without the help of experts and divers from all around the world who offered their expertise and resources to get the boys out.
One of them was Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, who offered a miniature submarine that he invented to extract the footballers from the Tham Luang cave. However, a British caver who was one of the key persons in the rescue team turned down this offer.
Vernon Unsworth, who provided the cave rescuers with mapping knowledge said that Musk’s prototype would have had “absolutely no chance of working” because Musk “had no conception of what the cave passage was like”, and labelled it as a “PR stunt”, reported Independent.
Offended by this, Musk responded on Sunday (July 15) in a series of tweets on his Twitter account, and called Unsworth a “pedo guy”.
However, he deleted the tweets soon after and did not immediately respond to a request for comment through Tesla.
Luckily for us, screenshots were taken before he deleted them.
Now, Unsworth plans to take legal action against the entrepreneur for that statement although he said today (July 16) that he had not reviewed the tweets and only heard about them, according to The Sun Daily.
When he was asked if he would take legal action against Musk over the allegation, Unsworth said: “If it’s what I think it is, yes.”
He would decide what to do when he flies back to the UK this week, but added that things with Musk “ain’t finished”.
“He’s just a PR stunt merchant — that’s all he is.”
Meanwhile, Claus Rasmussen, a Danish national and instructor at Blue Label diving in Phuket, called the allegations “inappropriate” and praised Unsworth’s role in the rescue.
“He was the guy who effectively mapped most of that cave,” he said.
“He was one of the driving forces in getting everything done and clarifying for us divers what was going on.”
What do you think about Elon Musk calling Vernon Unsworth a “pedo”? Let us know in the comments below!
Also read: Thai Navy SEAL Diver Says Boys Were Sedated During Rescue Mission, Here’s Why