Tesla CEO Elon Musk is taking heat for calling British diver Vern Unsworth, who helped orchestrate the Thai cave rescue, a 'pedo' on Twitter Sunday.
Musk was responding to criticism from Unsworth who called his attempt to aid the rescue with a mini-submarine "a PR stunt" in an interview with CNN.
"He can stick his submarine where it hurts," Unsworth said. "It just had absolutely no chance of working."
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.
Last week, Musk announced on Twitter that he was testing a mini-sub to help rescue the 12 Thai soccer players trapped in a cave with their coach.
But his mini-sub never made it into the caves. The head of the joint operation command center Narongsak Osatanakorn said the submarine was "good and sophisticated," but not practical for the rescue operation, according to The Guardian.
Each rescued boy was escorted through the labyrinthine cave by two divers, each of them holding an oxygen tank that feeds to the survivor's mask.
Unsworth, who has spent the last six years exploring the caves according to CNN, had a critical role in that rescue. He said the sub likely wouldn't have made it past the first 50 meters because it wouldn't be able to make it around corners or obstacles.
He went on to say that when Musk visited the cave he "was asked to leave very quickly."
Musk denied this saying that the Thai Navy SEALS "escorted us in — total opposite off wanting us to leave."
Never saw this British expat guy who lives in Thailand (sus) at any point when we were in the caves. Only people in sight were the Thai navy/army guys, who were great. Thai navy seals escorted us in — total opposite of wanting us to leave.
Musk also insisted that he was asked to help repeatedly with the rescue and worked with Rick Stanton, another one of the divers who found the boys in the cave, to design the sub.
I was *asked* to help repeatedly. Declined several times, as I thought they had it in hand & only agreed to help when Thai SEAL died (deep cave pumps not operating at time). We designed the mini-sub to Stanton’s specifications *and* brought a flexible rescue pod just in case.
We were external expert-sourcing the design with experienced cave experts on the Internet. We showed progress videos to iterate with the local dive team.
And … we certainly didn’t lie. Proof will be in the pudding shortly, when we take mini-sub all the way in & out of Cave 5.
Many on Twitter criticized the remark, but Musk doubled down saying in response "Bet ya a signed dollar it's true."
Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true
Contributing: Ashley Wong, USA TODAY
Follow N'dea Yancey-Bragg on Twitter: @NdeaYanceyBragg
