THE British cave diver attacked by Elon Musk has reportedly said he hasn’t ruled out taking legal action against the SpaceX CEO.

Billionaire Musk used social media to label a British diver who assisted with the Thai cave rescue a “pedo guy”.

The apparent slur, an abbreviation of the term paedophile, was part of a series of later-deleted tweets by Musk on Sunday after British diver Vernon Unsworth said the billionaire’s offer of a submarine for the rescue was a publicity stunt.

Reporters at the Thai cave site have spoken to Unsworth who has reportedly not ruled out legal action.

“He can stick his submarine where it hurts,” Unsworth told broadcaster CNN in an interview.

“It just had absolutely no chance of working. He had no conception of what the cave passage was like. The submarine was about five foot six (inches) long, rigid, so it wouldn’t have gone ‘round corners or ‘round any obstacles. It wouldn’t have made the first fifty metres into the cave... just a PR stunt.”

In response, Musk questioned Unsworth’s involvement in the rescue, describing him as a “suss” (suspicious) “British expat guy who lives in Thailand.” Musk also said he would prove his submarine was up to the task by sending it into the cave.

“Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it,” the 47-year-old tweeted. When challenged by a Twitter user about the allegation levelled against Unsworth, Musk replied “Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.”

TWO MAJOR RISKS OF THE THAI CAVE RESCUE
THE two Australian hero divers that helped rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach were reportedly given diplomatic immunity if anything went wrong during their rescue mission.

An official source confirmed to the ABC’s Four Corners program that Dr Craig Challen and Dr Richard Harris were given immunity after negotiations between Australian and Thai Government officials.

Jason Mallinson, a member of the British Cave Research Council Diving Team, also told Four Corners that Dr Harris was the “lynchpin” of the mission. Without him it would have failed.

“He was the lynchpin of the whole operation. Without him, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we did,” he said.

“His bedside manner when he was there with the kids and that, talking to them, calming them down and stuff like that, he was the one that sort of sent them on their way and we were just the transporters.”

In oirder to get the boys ready to leave the cave, Air Force Master Sergeant Derek Anderson from US Dive Operations Command said his team and other diving experts practised the rescue with local kids at a swimming pool at a nearby school.

“We had asked the Thai Navy SEALs, ‘Hey, we should probably get some kids that are around the same size, age and stature of the ones that we know are in there, and we should go put all this equipment on them, like, that, let’s just really run this to the ground’,” he said.

“The children were absolutely happy to help. We had divers and Thai children practising swimming underwater, practising handing them off.”

Mr Mallinson said they were also practising with the Wild Boars team and their coach.

“We’d get out of the water in the chamber and talk to them about what was involved. We would get out and kit them up with the correct kit,” he said.

“They’d get into the wetsuit. We’d put them in a buoyancy jacket, bring them down to the water, put them in the full face mask and check that the seal was good and make sure they were breathing okay.”

Mr Mallinson said there were two clear risks of the operation that could have led them to failure.

“The two things that were going to kill them was [if] the full face mask would become dislodged and they’d get water in the mask, and there was nothing we could do about that underwater. We didn’t have a backup device for them. It was that mask or nothing,” he said.

“The other thing is that if their air ran out.”

THAI BOYS GET SAD NEWS
The 12 boys and their coach rescued from a Thai cave are now mourning the death of an ex-Navy SEAL who died while taking part in the mission, after only just being told about the tragedy.

The “Wild Boars” football team are recovering in hospital following 18 days spent inside the Tham Luang cave after entering on June 23 and getting trapped by monsoon floodwaters.

Doctors say they are in good health following a successful three-day operation which ended on 10 July when teams of Thai Navy SEALs and international cave diving experts hauled the last five members of the team to safety.

But the lead-up to the final phase of the mission was met with tragedy when volunteer and former Navy SEAL diver Saman Kunan died on 6 July while installing oxygen tanks along the twisting passageways of the cave.

Kunan was widely hailed as a hero but the boys, aged 11 to 16, were only told about his death on Saturday after a medical team said they were strong enough mentally to handle the news, though many wept after hearing it.

“All cried and expressed their condolences by writing messages on a drawing of Lieutenant Commander Saman and observed one minute of silence for him,” Jedsada Chokdamrongsuk, permanent secretary at the health ministry, said in a statement.

Photos released show the youngsters crowded around a sketch of Kunan scrawling messages on it and bowing their heads in commemoration.

“They also thanked him and promised to be good boys,” the statement said.

Tributes from Thailand and around the world have poured in for Kunan, a triathlete and diver who retired from the military in 2006 and worked at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport before volunteering to help with the rescue in northern Thailand.

Specialists who took part in the risky mission to bring the Wild Boars home have expressed shock and surprise that they were able to pull it off, with some fearing that there could have been more casualties.

The unprecedented and daring final push to bring the boys out saw them sedated and carried through waterlogged and partially dry corridors with the help of military stretchers and nearly 100 divers.

Health officials have conveyed a largely positive picture of the boys’ recovery. All are expected to leave hospital on Thursday.

The health ministry said the overall condition for the players and coach was normal, though many are still on a course of antibiotics.

Despite the positive assessments so far experts have said they would all need to be monitored closely for signs of psychological distress that could take months to manifest.

They spent nine days in the dark, dank cave before being located by two British divers.

The boys — and their parents — have been advised to spend time with friends and family and not to give media interviews as that could trigger post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms.

But the interest in their story is unlikely to evaporate overnight, as Hollywood producers are already jockeying to make a film version of the saga.