Anyone following the harrowing story of the Thai soccer team stuck in the Tham Luang caverns in Chiang Rai, knows that Elon Musk took a huge interest in the rescue. Depending on who you ask, his involvement was appreciated, desperate, or just annoying, due to his insistence that his child-sized submarine could be used to retrieve the kids. But rescuers quickly dismissed the sub as impractical and basically told Elon to back off.
Relationships haven’t improved since and rescue diver Vern Unsworth voiced what we were all thinking, calling the submarine offer a PR stunt that had “no chance of working”.
Videos by VICE
To be exact, he told CNN the Tesla billionaire could “stick his submarine where it hurts.” Explaining his issues with the plan the said: “The submarine I believe was about 5 foot, 6 [inches] long, rigid, so it wouldn’t have gone round corners or any obstacles.” He also claimed it wouldn’t have made it past the first 50 metres into the cave.
Musk hit back on Twitter, referencing emails between himself and the dive team where he was told the submarine “may well be used”—which honestly does sound like a polite brush off.
Obviously still stung, yesterday Musk tweeted a rebuttal to Unsworth’s claims. In the now deleted thread, he first called the diver “sus” for living in Thailand. He then called for the final rescue video to be shown to prove that his submarine could have been used in the circumstance. Although he quickly recalled that, writing: “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.”
People were pretty quick to respond, calling him out for the unsubstantiated slur. In response he replied to one user: “Bet ya a signed dollar it’s true.”
