John Volanthen | |
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Born | John Paul Volanthen June 1971 (age 52–53) |
Nationality | British |
Education | De Montfort University |
Occupation | IT consultant |
Known for | Cave diving, cave rescue |
John Paul Volanthen, GM (born June 1971) is a British cave diver who undertakes cave rescues through the Cave Rescue Organisation, South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue, and the British Caving Association. In 2018, he played a leading role in the Tham Luang cave rescue. He cave-dives as a hobby and conducts rescues as a volunteer. He works as an IT consultant in Bristol. [1]
Volanthen was born in June 1971, [2] and grew up in Brighton, England. [1] Volanthen's surname is an anglicised spelling of the Swiss surname "Vonlanthen" — his paternal grandfather was Swiss. [3] He attended Longhill High School [4] in Rottingdean, and later De Montfort University in Leicester where he studied electronics. [5]
Volanthen's interest in caving began when he was a scout. [6] He began cave diving through a social club when he attended college.[ citation needed ]
Volanthen frequently cave dives and conducts rescues with a partner, Richard Stanton. He was part of a team that attempted a cave rescue of Eric Establie in 2010, in the Dragonnière Gaud Cave near Labastide-de-Virac in the Ardèche region of France, which was ultimately unsuccessful. [7] [8] In 2011, Volanthen assisted in the recovery of the body of Polish cave diver Artur Kozłowski from a cave in Kiltartan, Ireland. [9] Norwegian authorities asked him to assist in recovering the bodies of two Finnish divers from Jordbrugrotta in 2014, but after diving down to the site he and his colleagues assessed the operation to be too risky. [10] The bodies were subsequently recovered by Finnish and Norwegian divers.
In 2018, he helped locate a youth football team in the Tham Luang cave rescue; he and Stanton were the first to make contact with them. [11] [12] Poor visibility, cave and rescue debris, and low temperatures were all obstacles to cave diving in search of the team. Volanthen placed guidelines in the cave to assist others in navigation. After he ran out of line, he swam to the surface - there he found the missing team and the adult coach. [13] Volanthen's voice is that heard on a widely broadcast video of the first contact with the football team, asking "How many of you?" When he learned that all the missing people were accounted for, he replied, "Brilliant." [1] He and Stanton did not have any food to offer the team when they encountered them, but they gave them a light. When they left the team, Volanthen promised them that he would come back, doing so by assisting in delivering food. [14]
Volanthen disputed the notion that encountering the team was due to luck, saying that he and Stanton systematically surfaced at every airspace in the flooded cave passages to shout and listen for a response, as well as to smell for any indicators of human waste signifying the current or past presence of the team. They smelled the team before they saw them. Volanthen also assisted in rescuing members of the team; the children were sedated and then lashed to the divers. Parts of the cave were so narrow that the children were pushed in front of the divers. At other times, the children were held close to the chest or out to the side. Volanthen said that the children were held as if carrying a "shopping bag." [14]
In a BBC interview after the rescue, Volanthen was asked, "Can you see that what you did was fairly remarkable?" He responded, "I can see it was a first, how's that?" [14]
In 2004, Volanthen and Stanton set a record for the greatest depth achieved in a British cave, diving 76 m (249 ft) at Wookey Hole in Somerset. [15] In 2010, Volanthen, Stanton, Jason Mallinson, and René Houben set a world record for the longest cave penetration dive, reaching 8,800 m (28,900 ft) in the Pozo Azul cave system in the Rudrón Valley in Spain. [16]
Volanthen designs and constructs some of his own diving equipment, and has been called a "technical guru." [17] He designed a mapping device that collects information while diving. [18] He also designs and modifies his own rebreathers to increase their compactness and efficiency. [17]
Volanthen was awarded the Royal Humane Society's bronze medal in 2012 for a rescue attempt of a diver in a French cave, and for the discovery of the diver's body. [19]
In September 2018, he was given the Bronze Cross, The Scout Association's highest honour, awarded for "heroism or action in the face of extraordinary risk." [20]
In November 2018, Volanthen and five other members of the British cave rescue team were given the Pride of Britain 2018 award for "Outstanding Bravery" for the Tham Luang incident. The rescued children attended the award ceremony, in London. [21]
In the 2019 New Year Honours, Volanthen and Stanton were awarded the George Medal (GM) for their roles at Tham Luang. [22] [23] Three other members of their team were made Members of the Order of the British Empire and two were awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal. [23] Volanthen was also awarded the Royal Humane Society's Stanhope Medal for his role in the rescue. [24]
As a hobby, Volanthen runs marathons and ultramarathons. [1] He is also a volunteer scout leader with the Somerset Scouts, taking children on cave excursions. [25] He was formerly married to Annabelle Richards. [5]
Wookey Hole Caves are a series of limestone caverns, a show cave and tourist attraction in the village of Wookey Hole on the southern edge of the Mendip Hills near Wells in Somerset, England. The River Axe flows through the cave. It is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for both biological and geological reasons. Wookey Hole cave is a "solutional cave", one that is formed by a process of weathering in which the natural acid in groundwater dissolves the rocks. Some water originates as rain that flows into streams on impervious rocks on the plateau before sinking at the limestone boundary into cave systems such as Swildon's Hole, Eastwater Cavern and St Cuthbert's Swallet; the rest is rain that percolates directly through the limestone. The temperature in the caves is a constant 11 °C (52 °F).
Cave rescue is a highly specialized field of wilderness rescue in which injured, trapped or lost cave explorers are medically treated and extracted from various cave environments.
The Cave Diving Group (CDG) is a United Kingdom-based diver training organisation specialising in cave diving.
The Naval Special Warfare Command, commonly known as the Royal Thai Navy SEALs, is the special operations force of the Royal Thai Navy.
Recreational caving in the United Kingdom dates back to the mid-19th century. The four major caving areas of the United Kingdom are North Yorkshire, South Wales, Derbyshire, and the Mendips. Minor areas include Devon, North Wales, and the Scottish Highlands.
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Longhill High School is a co-educational secondary school for 11 to 16 year-olds, which is located in Rottingdean, Brighton and Hove, East Sussex. The school grounds are served by Brighton & Hove bus routes 2, 22, 72, 72A and 76, 76A.
Craig Challen, SC is an Australian technical diver and cave explorer who played a substantial role in the Tham Luang cave rescue. He was the recipient of the Oztek 2009 Diver of the Year award for his services to caving, and was joint winner of the 2019 Australian of the Year.
Artur "Conrad" Kozłowski was a Polish cave diver who spent his last years in Ireland. Amongst other achievements in cave exploration, he set the record for the deepest cave dive in Great Britain and Ireland at a depth of 103 m (338 ft).
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In June and July 2018, a junior association football team was rescued from Tham Luang Nang Non, a cave system in Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand. Twelve members of the team, aged 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old assistant coach entered the cave on 23 June after a practice session. Shortly after they entered, heavy rainfall began and partially flooded the cave system, blocking their way out and trapping them deep within.
Tham Luang Nang Non is a karstic cave system in the Tham Luang–Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park, near the village of Pong Pha, in northern Thailand. It lies beneath Doi Nang Non, a mountain range on the border with Myanmar.
Richard William Stanton, is a British civilian cave diver who specialises in rescues through the Cave Rescue Organisation and the British Cave Rescue Council. He has been called "one of the world's most accomplished cave-divers", "the face of British cave diving," and "the best cave diver in Europe". Stanton has lived in Coventry for many years, and was formerly a firefighter with the West Midlands Fire Service for 25 years prior to his retirement. In 2018 he played a leading role in the Tham Luang cave rescue and was awarded the George Medal in the Civilian Gallantry List.
The Alpazat cave rescue occurred in March 2004 after six British soldiers became trapped in the Alpazat caverns in Puebla, Mexico near Cuetzalan. All six were rescued by British cave divers after spending eight days inside the cave. The incident resulted in diplomatic tension between Britain and Mexico, as the soldiers refused local help and there were rumors that they were surveying for uranium deposits.
Richard Harris SC, OAM, is an Australian anaesthetist and cave diver who is currently the Lieutenant Governor of South Australia. Harris is best known for having played a crucial role in the Tham Luang cave rescue. He and Craig Challen were jointly awarded 2019 Australian of the Year as a result of that rescue. Harris was appointed as South Australia's Lieutenant-Governor in 2024, and was sworn in on 9 February 2024.
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Thai Cave Rescue is a 6-part limited series produced by Netflix, directed by Kevin Tancharoen and Nattawut Poonpiriya. It was released on September 22, 2022.
The Trapped 13: How We Survived The Thai Cave is a 2022 documentary film directed by Pailin Wedel and produced by Netflix. It follows the Tham Luang cave rescue, a 2018 mission that saved a junior association football team from a flooded cave.