Insight: Aug 21

This week Insight hears from one of the divers in the Thai cave rescue, in an episode about “Nerves of Steel.”

In June this year, the world watched on in fascination as 12 boys and their football coach, who had become trapped in a cave system in Thailand, were rescued by an international team of divers.

The rescue team who risked their own lives to undertake the mission captured our attention and lead Insight to ask why some people are willing to put their lives on the line to save others? And what does it take to stay composed on the job when multiple lives are at risk, not just their own?

Next week, Insight speaks to Danish cave diver, Ivan Karadzic, who took part in the “mission impossible” after hearing about the boys’ plight. He recognised that only skilled cave divers like him would have a chance of extracting the boys and their coach from the flooded cave. It was the first rescue Ivan had been involved with and he spent 10-12 hours per day for nine days diving the complicated cave system, surprised at the scale and difficulty of the rescue effort he’d signed up for.

Aldo Diana is a London firefighter who saved nine people from the Grenfell Tower inferno last year. Even in a fire of that scale, Aldo was excited rather than fearful as he entered the burning building wanting to put his training to use.

So, how much of it is training and how much is personality which allows some people to perform roles that others can’t imagine being able to do?

Insight asks one of Australia’s elite combat fighter pilots, Matt Hall, who speaks about how his military training allowed him to stay completely focused even in situations like being tracked by a guided missile in combat in the Middle East.

Helen Zahos, an emergency nurse who signs up to work in situations like the Nepal Earthquake and Greek refugee crisis, tells us why she’s attracted to dangerous work and how she deals with the emotional fall out when she comes home. Bomb disposal technician Laith Stevens shares stories from his decade in Laos working with unexploded bombs from the Vietnam War.

On next week’s episode, Insight’s Jenny Brockie speaks to:

Ivan Karadzic, Danish Cave Diver – “You’re thinking about what if I do something wrong. I was fully aware that the danger was much higher for the kid than for me. I’ve done this for a while and I know what to do if something goes bad. The kids, they don’t. So you are afraid of doing something wrong that could potentially lead to injury or worse.”

Aldo Diana, London Firefighter – “Gobsmacked, you just don’t believe a building burns the way that that building burnt.”

Helen Zahos, Emergency Nurse – “I feel a sense of purpose, I think when you’ve got training and when you’ve got certain skills to offer, and you know, I’ve got the ability. I’m not married, I don’t have a family so I can get up and go.”

Matt Hall, Combat Fighter Pilot – “You spend your whole life as a fighter pilot training for that combat role. Obviously I had to be trained pretty comprehensively in how to successfully do the mission, to actually get my bombs onto the target I’ve been allocated, and that is the primary goal.”

Laith Stevens, Bomb Disposal Technician – “There’s no way in the world you would get me in a cave. But I’d happily sit over a bomb and work on it all day long.”

Tuesday 21 August at 8:30pm on SBS.