Elon Musk Calls British Diver in Thai Cave Rescue a Pedophile
The desperate mission to rescue a dozen young boys and their soccer coach has ended a success, but a British diver who participated in the operations is still trading barbs with Elon Musk. The SpaceX CEO, who built a mini-submarine for the mission, called the diver a "pedo" in an attack on social media.
The tweet has since been deleted, after many users on Twitter asked him to remove the controversial reply. His remark was one of the latest in a series of exchanges with British diver Vern Unsworth, who first attacked Musk by calling his offer of aid to the mission "a PR stunt," according to Time Magazine.
Unsworth, not content with dismissing the SpaceX CEO's offer of hardware and technical help, also suggested that Musk can "stick his submarine where it hurts." Unsworth added that the mini-sub that Musk developed was too long and unwieldy for the tight constraints in the Tham Luang caves and that it had "absolutely no chance of working."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
The kid-size submarine "wouldn't have made the first 50 meters into the cave," the spelunker added in an interview with CNN, where he lambasted Musk's contributions to the rescue mission.
In retaliation, Musk has tweeted that they will prove that it works, and could go as deep into "Cave 5," near where the stranded football team has found shelter, by making a video.
"You know what, don;t bother showing the video. We will make one of the mini-sub/pod going all the way to Cave 5 no problemo. Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it," Musk reportedly wrote in the deleted Twitter post.
Unsworth was an active part of the efforts to rescue the boys stranded in the Thai caves, a delicate operation that ended in all of them getting freed from the cave along with their coach.
