SINGAPORE: Canadian diver Erik Brown, who helped in the rescue of 12 boys and their football coach from a flooded cave in Thailand in 2018, has died. He was 44.
Diving publication DeeperBlue reported his death on Sept 25, but the exact date, location and cause has not been made public.
Brown was part of a team of international volunteers whose specialised skills helped bring 12 players of the Wild Boars youth football team – aged between 11 and 16 at the time – and their 25-year-old coach out of the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex in Chiang Rai, in northern Thailand.
He carried air cylinders and equipment through flooded passages, laid and maintained guide ropes, and helped keep the route usable for the rescuers bringing the boys out.
In his log, he recalled spending 63 hours inside the cave over nine days and seven missions.
The boys and their coach entered the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex on June 23, 2018.
Heavy rain quickly flooded the passages and blocked their exit. A search began when they did not return home. Their bicycles and belongings were later found near the cave’s entrance.
For nine days, rescuers swam through rising water and muddy passages without knowing whether the boys and their coach were still alive.
On July 2, British cave divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen found everyone alive on an elevated patch of ground deep inside the cave. That transformed the search into a much harder problem: getting the group out.
For three days, from July 8 to 10, rescuers navigated submerged tunnels, tight bends and stretches with almost no visibility. One experienced Thai navy diver died after he ran out of breathing air during a support dive.
The boys were given ketamine to calm their nerves and fitted with full-face breathing masks.
On July 10, 2018, the world watched and cheered as the last four boys and their coach were hauled out of the cave.
‘We just happened to be really close’
Brown arrived in Chiang Rai with fellow diver Ivan Karadzic on July 2, just hours after the boys and their coach were found.
“If you can use the skill set to help in any way you can, you have to,” Brown told The Washington Post after the rescue. “Lots of people would have done it. We just happened to be really close.”
Brown’s diving career began in Australia in 2004.
In an interview with Diver magazine, he said a trip to the Great Barrier Reef led him to take an introductory scuba course and progress to divemaster.
A shoulder injury brought him back to Canada for surgery, prompting him to pursue diving as a way to keep travelling and working in the water.
He subsequently trained as an instructor in the Philippines.
He went on to co-found Team Blue Immersion, a technical diving operation in Dahab, Egypt, in 2010, before establishing Hydronauts on Koh Tao.
Much of his professional experience involved deep-water and wreck diving, while cave diving remained a personal passion that took him to Mexico and Florida.
“He can adapt. He can stay calm. He’s not somebody to panic,” Brown’s older brother, Kirk, told Canada’s CBC news network in 2018.
After the rescue, Kirk said, Brown’s pride centred on the people alongside him.
“He’s just talked with pride about everybody he worked with, how they were a team,” he said.
Canada awarded Brown the Medal of Bravery in 2019. The official citation said he “repeatedly put his life at risk”.
Thailand also honoured him with a royal decoration, according to Thai news outlet The Thaiger.
Tributes have since poured in for Brown, with one friend writing: “He was the brightest light, a dear friend, and one of the kindest humans I have ever met.” - The Straits Times/ANN
