Tesla CEO Elon Musk is sending a team of engineers to Thailand to help emergency crews rescue a group of youth soccer players who have been trapped deep in a cave for nearly two weeks.

A group of 12 youth soccer players and one coach have been stuck in the cave since June 23 after floodwaters blocked off the exit. Crews located the boys about two kilometres from the cave鈥檚 entrance following nine days of searching.

Musk, also the founder of space exploration company SpaceX and tunnelling firm The Boring Company, said on Twitter he intends to send a team of engineers from both companies to help in the rescue efforts.

鈥淪paceX (and) Boring Co. engineers headed to Thailand tomorrow to see if we can be helpful to (the government),鈥� 鈥淭here are probably many complexities that are hard to appreciate without being there in person.鈥�

The rescue operation has proven challenging to date as swimming to safety could take about five hours and would require navigating through tight and dark passageways.

Scuba diving has already proven treacherous for even the most experienced divers. On Thursday, a former Thai Navy SEAL fell unconscious while swimming through the cave and could not be revived.

Some of the kids have also indicated they cannot swim and are already weak from not eating.

Rescue crews have also been working to drain the water so the boys would not be as reliant on scuba diving to get to safety, but heavy rain expected Saturday could complicate the matter.

Musk said The Boring Company鈥檚 drilling capabilities might be able to help drop in battery packs and pumps from above.

鈥淏oring Co. has advanced ground penetrating radar (and) is pretty good at digging holes,鈥� 鈥淒on鈥檛 know if pump rate is limited by electric power or pumps are too small. If so, could dropship fully charged powerpacks and pumps.鈥�

Cave rescue experts have said the safest course of action might be to wait for Thailand鈥檚 monsoon season to end, but that could take months and oxygen levels in the cave continue to dwindle.

of inserting a nylon tube through the underwater passageways for the boys to walk through.

an inflatable tube would use up to 1,000 times less power than pumping water and could free the boys after a 40-minute walk instead of a five-hour swim.

If time wasn鈥檛 of importance, Doug Elsey, executive director of the Canadian Association of Diving Contractors, thinks Musk鈥檚 inflatable tube idea might work, but otherwise he believes the best course of action is to teach the boys scuba diving.

鈥淚t would just be a heck of a lot of work to do that,鈥� he told 麻豆影视 Channel. 鈥淚 think you don鈥檛 really want to go super high-tech on this. Just do it simple by basically putting a full face mask on the boys and having two divers -- maybe three -- guiding them out one at a time.鈥�