It was a long Friday for Arcata-based Wing Inflatables employees. In fewer than 24 hours the team designed, built, tested and shipped off five rescue devices with the hopes that they can be used to rescue the members and coach of a youth soccer team that has been trapped by water in a cave in Thailand for the past two weeks.

“SpaceX is the one who has pushed us to do this and are flying it out,” Wing Inflatables CEO Andrew Branagh said.

Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind the Tesla automobile and the SpaceX rocket company, has said he would send engineers to help. One of his enterprises, Boring Co., digs tunnels for advanced transport systems and has ground-penetrating radar.

“SpaceX and Boring Co. engineers headed to Thailand tomorrow to see if we can be helpful to [government]. There are probably many complexities that are hard to appreciate without being there in person,” Musk tweeted Friday.

Musk also brainstormed on Twitter about possible technology for a safe evacuation, suggesting that an air tunnel constructed with soft tubing like a bounce house could provide flexible passage out.

The boys, 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach went exploring in the cave after a soccer game June 23. Monsoon flooding cut off their escape and prevented rescuers from finding them for almost 10 days. The only way to reach them was by navigating dark and tight passageways filled with muddy water and strong currents.

Wing Inflatable pods

Branagh said five units were to be sent out of the local airport on a SpaceX jet and that the Wing Inflatables crew will be willing to manufacture more pods to be sent if requested.

The pod is made of the same polyurethane the company uses on its boats and pontoons. It’s orange and black and about 7 feet long and 4 feet wide. On one end is a metal ring ropes can be tied to and the other end opens up with Velcro to allow for someone to scoot in with a SCUBA tank. It’s covered in handles to give rescue divers lots of places to grab onto it. On the top, it has four holes that allow for air from the breathing apparatus to escape the pod if less buoyancy is required. The pod has two black pontoons on either side that can be inflated using air from a SCUBA tank for additional buoyancy if needed.

“They’d climb in and they’d have a breathing apparatus and you could pull them through the submerged part. That’s the big issue with the rescue right now,” Wing general manager Patrick Sproul said.

Work at the Wing Inflatables factory in Arcata began around 5 a.m. Friday, he said.

“That’s not our typical start time, but this isn’t a typical situation,” Sproul said.

By 1 p.m., five employees were testing the first one out in the Arcata Community Pool much to the delight of onlookers including a group of curious Arcata Elementary School children taking part in a summer program.

Wing Inflatables has decades of experience making inflatable craft and is no stranger to rescue situations. Last year, Wing Inflatables boats were used in Hurricane Harvey search-and-rescue operations.

“It’s kind of what we do. … Give us a problem and we’ll find out a way to solve it,” Sproul said.

Sproul said the hope is that rescue divers can bring the pod to the trapped team and load them up and pull them out of the cave one at a time. The trapped boys wouldn’t have to learn to swim, dive or cave dive if the devices are implemented.

The tests at the pool were overseen by Charlie Notthoff, who is a Pacific Outfitters dive instructor with 40 years of experience teaching diving.

“It’s a whole different thing. I’m not a certified cave diver,” he said when asked to compare regular and cave diving.

The guinea pig at the pool was Wing Inflatables finisher Brian Peterson who has never dived before and got into the pod feet first like a sleeping bag hugging the SCUBA tank to his chest with the mouthpiece clenched in his teeth. After the Velcro end was sealed, the pod was rolled into the pool with a splash. The team allowed the pod to be hole-side down to see how the pod filled with the respirator’s air, then flipped it to see how the holes allowed the air to escape before test filling the pontoons.

“He’s got a really great breathing rate, nice and calm,” Notthoff said.

This is important because fast, shallow, nervous breathing can run through the air in SCUBA tanks faster.

“It was definitely a hell of a new experience,” Peterson said.

Next to try it out was Notthoff himself.

“It’s not the most comfortable thing right off the bat,” he said about being in the pod.

He added that the alternative is for these untrained boys to dive through the cave in zero visibility water which can also be uncomfortable.

Rescue efforts

Authorities in Thailand said Friday they will not immediately attempt an underwater evacuation of 12 schoolboys who have been trapped in a cave because they have not learned adequate diving skills in the short time since searchers reached the area where they are sheltering.

However, the official in immediate charge of the operation, Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn, indicated at a news conference that if heavy rains started and appeared to be causing flooded areas in the cave to rise again, divers would try to take the boys out right away.

Thai officials had been suggesting in public statements that a quick underwater evacuation of the boys and their soccer coach was needed because of the possibility that access to the cave could soon close again due to seasonal monsoon rains expected this weekend.

Earlier efforts to pump out water from the cave have been set back every time there has been a heavy rain.

Cave rescue specialists have cautioned against that approach except as a last resort, because of the dangers posed by inexperienced people using diving gear. The path out is considered especially complicated because of twists and turns in some narrow flooded passages.

The suggestion that the trapped team might have to wait months inside until a safe way out in available — as was the case in 2010 with Chilean miners trapped underground — has met with little enthusiasm.

The authorities continue to pursue a third option, which is finding a shaft or drilling into the mountain in which the cave is located to find a sort of back door entrance.

Asked at his midnight news conference about taking the boys out underwater, the governor replied, “Not today because they cannot dive at this time.”

Narongsak said the boys were still healthy and have practiced wearing diving masks and breathing in preparation for the diving possibility.

The rescue effort suffered a disheartening setback Friday with the death of a former Thai navy SEAL diving in the flooded passageways to deliver supplies, as authorities raced against worsening weather and lessening oxygen.

Professional cave divers from Europe are making the dangerous dives with a contingent of Thai navy SEALs. Two divers from the U.K. were the first to make it, on Monday, to the area where the boys and their coach took shelter. The divers are making frequent swims in and out.

The death of former Thai navy SEAL Saman Gunan underscored the risks of making the underwater journey. The diver, the first fatality of the rescue effort, was working in a volunteer capacity and died on a mission to place oxygen canisters along the route to where the boys and others are sheltered, Thai SEAL commander Rear Adm. Arpakorn Yookongkaew said.

The strategically placed canisters allow divers to stay underwater longer during the five-hour trip to reach the stranded team.

While underwater, Saman passed out and efforts to resuscitate him failed, Arpakorn said. Some officials said his collapse was due to his oxygen supply running out, but the cause of his collapse was not confirmed.

“Despite this, we will continue until we accomplish our mission,” Arpakorn vowed.

Hunter Cresswell can be reached at 707-441-0506. The Associated Press contributed to this report.