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Thai Cave Rescuer Slams Elon Musk’s Idea As ‘PR Stunt’, Musk Calls Him ‘Pedo’ In An Ugly War Of Words

byJinal Bhatt
16th July 2018
3 minute read

There’s no disputing the fact that Elon Musk is a genius billionaire who’s trying to usher the world into a new era of technology and innovation. But while great genius comes with great responsibility to use it well, there is also one to not let it get to your head. A memo that Musk might’ve missed when it came to this incident pertaining to the Thai cave rescue.

It all began when the Tesla CEO was bombarded with pleas to help with the Thailand cave rescue ops.

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The 12 boys and their assistant football coach were trapped in a flooded cave system in Thailand. Initially, Musk maintained that he awaited the Thai government to approach him if they needed his help, he claims that the death of one of the Navy SEAL divers strengthened his resolve.

As soon as Musk expressed his willingness to help, the SpaceX team got in touch with the Thai government, and the mission was on. He kept posting updates on Twitter about the tech they were building and testing for the rescue.

Simultaneously, he kept tracking, coordinating and keeping abreast of the new developments in the rescue op, and praised the divers involved.

Elon Musk himself landed up in Thailand, at the cave, and tweeted that the mini-submarine that he and his team had developed for this op was ready for use, if needed.

On July 13, after 18 harrowing days and countless missions, the 12 boys and their coach were rescued. The coach’s heroics in keeping his team alive, the divers’ brave efforts, everything was appreciated. The world was rejoicing. Hollywood was already planning a movie on the events! And then, this interview happened.

In an interview with CNN, a British cave driver instrumental in the rescue ops, Vernon Unsworth, called Elon Musk’s submarine idea a ‘PR stunt’.

Unsworth claimed that the submarine “had absolutely no chance of working” in the narrow and intricate passageways of the cave. So far, so frank.

https://youtu.be/1TmjpIkVDrU

However, if that wasn’t enough, the cave diver went on to make a very unwarranted remark, which might have been the trigger to this entire controversy.

“He (Elon Musk) can stick his submarine where it hurts.”

Yep, that did it. Musk, who has been known to take blunt stands against media critics as well on occasion, had a very public outburst on Twitter.

However, just as in the case of Unsworth above, Elon Musk made a very unnecessary personal attack. But in Musk’s case, it was much more damaging than the diver’s rude remark, because Musk called him a ‘Pedo’.

This was one of a series of tweets on Sunday, in which a very agitated Musk defended the mini-submarine, which he claimed was made after iterating with expert divers. He asserted how he was ‘asked’ for help ‘repeatedly’, and that there would soon be video proof of the sub being successfully navigated out of Cave 5.

Musk’s tweet was met with massive outcry on Twitter, but initially, the Tesla CEO did not back down.

A Twitter user pointed out that the guy Musk just called a ‘pedo’ was the very same one who rescued the kids, Musk reiterated,

“Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.”

Following the public outrage, Musk deleted this and all the other related tweets.

Unsworth, the cave diver that Musk called a ‘pedophile’ has spoken to the media and is now planning to take legal action against Elon Musk.

He told The Guardian how he was “astonished and very angry” at the remark.

“I believe he’s called me a paedophile. I think people realise what sort of guy [Musk] is.”

It is safe to say that while the rudeness was unwarranted on both sides of this argument, Elon Musk’s ‘pedo’ comment was a whole lot of more inappropriate than Unsworth’s. And the resulting lawsuit could be equally dirty.

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