My husband and I were talking about this tonight - what we would have done. When I was a kid, I was absolutely fine in tight spaces and not afraid of water. Now that I'm an adult, I'm freaked out by both. Even though I can swim, I almost drowned in college when we were sitting on some rocks out in a shallow river and the dam opened up and the water rose 6 feet in minutes. I had to swim 1/4 mile in 60 degree water and only survived because I saw a kayaker who pulled me the rest of the way to shore. After that, I never went near swimming in rivers again.
As a kid, I would probably have been fine with the pod. Now the very thought makes me queasy. I'd choose the scuba option even though I've never done it.
I've got a Open Water license and been diving about two dozen times, although very infrequently over a number of years and nothing comperable to cave diving. Been to a small wreck once even if I was technically not qualified for it, and swam through some relatively easy to navigate rock formations and tunnels. The kids have no experience and training, well they mostly can't even swim meaning they are afraid of water even under the best of circumstances, and now their lives are on the line, they've been down there for longer than two weeks and they'd have to do some challenging diving in very tight spots while being essentially blind in the muddy water, and the way out takes 5 hours even for the professionals
my completely uneducated guess would be that it might be doable as long as the conditions don't change dramatically i.e. rising waters and strong currents, as long as they somehow stay completely calm and are able to follow the instructions of the rescuers for the entire 5+ hours (likely much longer) stretch. The less agency/responsibility the kids have underwater, the easier and saver the rescue operation would likely be, since the rescue divers know precisely what they are doing. Ideally, the kids would more or less behave like inanimate objects (bad choice of words, I know) that can safely be floated through the cave system
