Chile awaits start of mine rescue

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While we squabble endlessly & often fruitlessly on issues a world away brave men have shown resilience & courage against fearful odds. A nation has joined hands to rescue its brave sons.

BBC News - Chilean attempt to rescue 33 miners draws near


The first man to be freed from the San Jose mine in northern Chile is expected to reach the surface later on Tuesday, Mining Minister Laurence Golborne says.

He said the rescue operation could begin in the "last quarter of the day" (from 2100 GMT), once final safety tests had been carried out.
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These included testing the capsule and the winching system that would bring the miners up one by one, he said.

Thirty-three men were trapped in the mine by a tunnel collapse on 5 August.

The miners' ordeal is the longest suffered by a group of miners caught underground; the effort to free them began on 17 September as the drilling of the rescue shaft began.

Correspondents say there is a sense of excitement on the surface, with the miners' families counting the hours.

Journalists have flocked to the mine from all over the world to see the freed men emerge from their two-month ordeal.

Wives and girlfriends are camped out at the site entrance.

President Sebastian Pinera is due to arrive at the mine later on Tuesday and security has been tightened. Police on horseback are patrolling the hillsides surrounding the remote desert site.

Mr Golborne said he expected the entire process to take 48 hours, and that each rotation of the cage would take around an hour: a few minutes to strap the miner into the capsule; the ascent that would take 10-15 minutes; and then dropping the cage again down the shaft, which would take 25-30 minutes.

He added there were no major concerns ahead of the rescue: "We feel that we are very well prepared."

Chilean Health Minister Jaime Manalich said the miners were getting ready for the rescue, and were helping with the preparations, such as building a platform at the bottom of the shaft to help with the rescue.

"Our miners are in pretty good shape. They keep calm and they're all ready prepared to this final journey.

"They're [each] going to wear oxygen masks and also they're going to wear helmets and glasses, dark glasses to protect them from the light."

Each miner will wear a "bio-harness" designed for astronauts, which will monitor their heart rate, breathing, temperature and oxygen consumption.
'Risk'

Chief engineer Andre Sougarret said on Monday that a formal test of the 622m (2,040ft) rescue shaft had been successful, with the specially constructed 53cm (21in) wide Phoenix rescue capsule barely registering a scratch as it travelled up and down the tunnel.

But he warned: "There's always a risk transporting people in a vertical system."

Alberto Segovia, brother of trapped miner Dario Segovia, and his daughter Carla Belgica, stand at the relatives camp outside the San Jose mine (11 October 2010) For the miners' families who have mounted a vigil, the final hours are upon them

The top of the shaft has been reinforced with metal casing to prevent crumbling surface rocks from breaking away during the rescue. Experts said the rest of the escape shaft was dug through solid rock and would not break up.

Sixteen highly trained rescuers - members of the Chilean special forces and veterans of previous underground rescues - are poised to begin the process of bringing out the miners.

But the rescuers would only be told at the last minute which of them would lead off the rescue attempt, Mr Golborne said.

"All the rescuers have been prepared to fulfil that role," he said, adding that the person "best suited" to the task would go first.

'Comradeship'

The miners have already been informed about which of them will be the first out of the mine, Chilean media have reported.

Breakthrough day 68

They have not been named, but are thought to include some of the most psychologically stable and experienced of the miners, in case something goes wrong during the first few rescues.

Next will be those who are weakest or ill. One miner suffers from hypertension. Another is a diabetic, and others have dental and respiratory infections or skin lesions caused by the humidity in the mine.

After their rescue, the miners will be taken to a triage station. When they have been cleared by doctors there, they will be reunited with their families.

Later, they will be flown to the hospital in the nearby city of Copiapo, which is on standby to receive them.

Staff there have increased the number of nurses, specialists and doctors on shift.

The outside of the recently painted building looks impeccable, and inside, welcome banners adorn the walls, reports BBC Mundo's Valeria Perasso at the hospital.

Outside the hospital, they have set up barriers to cope with the crowds of onlookers and journalists, while the miners themselves will be brought in via a rear entrance, and will be on the second and third floors, our correspondent adds.

 

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Chile miners' rescue accomplished

After more than two months underground, all 33 miners have now emerged from the collapsed Chilean copper mine in the Atacama desert to the excitement and relief of waiting family and friends.

Rescue teams lifted the miners to the surface one by one in a narrow, missile-like capsule, nicknamed Phoenix. The operation, which rescuers originally said would take around two days, finished in 22 hours. Miners who were told they would be lucky to make it out by Christmas now all saw daylight by the third week of October.

Each miner stepping out of the capsule was greeted by three family members - and President Sebastian Pinera - before being seen by waiting doctors and flown to a triage centre for at least two days of check-ups.
The 33rd and last miner to be rescued was Luis Urzua, 54, the shift supervisor who organised the miners and was credited as a calming presence in the mine. He reportedly would not let anyone eat until everyone's food had arrived through the rescue shaft.

Five rescuers remain in the chamber, waiting to be lifted out one by one as well.

The 32 Chileans and one Bolivian trapped in the San Jose mine in northern Chile were initially believed to have perished, but they had found refuge in an emergency shelter and survived by strictly rationing their food and water.

On Wednesday, Evo Morales, the Bolivian president, visited Carlos Mamani, his rescued compatriot, at the triage centre.

'All healthy'

Officials decided the order in which the miners would be pulled up based on their health and capacities. The first group would be the healthiest, the middle group comparatively infirm, and the last group also healthy.
The first miner to be rescued was Florencio Avalos, a 31-year-old driver, chosen because he was considered among the most physically and mentally fit of the group.

He smiled broadly as he emerged and hugged his weeping seven-year-old son and wife. He then embraced Sebastian Pinera, the president, who has been at the scene overseeing the rescue operation.

Mario Sepulveda, a 39-year-old electrical specialist, was the second to reach the surface.

After hugging his wife, he jubilantly handed souvenir rocks to laughing rescuers.

"I'm so happy!" Sepulveda yelled, punching his fist in the air and hugging everyone in sight.

The miners were pulled up through a 600m-deep shaft in a rescue capsule wide as the shoulders of an average built miner, designed specifically for the operation.

The miners communicated with rescue teams using an intercom in the capsule.

It took only 16 minutes for miners to be pulled up the shaft. It was originally estimated that the journey would take half an hour, though the final ascents lasted only around nine.

Avalos began his journey after a mining rescue expert and a paramedic were lowered down the rescue tunnel to prepare the miners for their rescue.

'Hundreds of contingencies'

The operation has been followed minute by minute by international media and Chilean citizens. More than 800 journalists and cameramen have gathered at the site.

The only media allowed to record the men coming out of the shaft is a government photographer and Chile's state TV channel, whose live broadcast was delayed by 30 seconds or more to prevent the release of anything unexpected.

Panic attacks had been the rescuers' biggest concern. A miner could get claustrophobic and do something to damage the capsule. Or a falling rock could wedge it in the shaft. But none seemed upset; one even described the trip as a "cruise".

Laurence Golborne, the Chilean mining minister, said authorities had already thought of everything.

Our correspondent Lucia Newman said the successful rescue operation is good news for Pinera, whose government has been criticised for its slow response to the earthquake which killed more than 500 people in February. The UK Telegraph reported that Pinera's approval rating since the incident had risen from 46 per cent to 57 per cent.

"Pinera has been under quite a bit of criticism for the slowness of the reconstruction effort," our correspondent said.

"[The mine rescue] has taken away some of the attention from that. Most of the eyes of the country have been focused on this rescue effort but once it's over, people will go back to asking the hard questions.

"Not only what happened in the mine and what's wrong with the mining regulations in Chile but also what about the rest of the country?"

Media opportunities

The miners are reported to have moved to stop any individual from profiting at the expense of the group, drawing up a legal contract to share any profits from the story of their experience.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Stuart Higgins, a former UK tabloid newspaper editor, said: "The media opportunities in terms of films, books, tv specials, will be absolutely unlimited.

"And of course with 33 men, as with any large group of people, there's going to be dipsutes, there's going to be things that have gone on down underground that we don't know about.

"One of the big issues is going to be, for the media, is the first person out of the blocks of course. If one person tells their story is that going to be much different from the other 32 stories.

"So there's going to be a real kind of challenge to keep a unity amongst these men which has been absolutely crucial when they've been 2,000 feet underground.

"But now I think they'll be a few rows, and a few disputes, and I think we are going to have a fascinating few months to come."

Medical check-ups

In the nearby town of Copiapo, streets and plazas were filled with people blowing horns and singing songs as they watched events unfold on large plasma screens.

The last miner out was Luis Urzua, the shift foreman whose leadership was credited for helping the men endure 17 days with no outside contact after the mine collapsed on August 5.

Initially, officials had thought it would take until Christmas to get the miners out, but the drilling of a rescue tunnel 622 metres deep to reach where the miners were trapped was completed last weekend.

Al Jazeera's Monica Villamizar, reporting from the rescue scene, said: "Authorities have told us that after all the necessary medical tests have been made, and the check-ups complete, they are free to go with their families and they are free to talk with whoever they want.
Rescuers reinforced part of the 600 metre long escape shaft with steel piping

Each of the trapped miners has been promised six months of psychological support by the Chilean government.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Eugen Gaal, from the UK Society of Occupational Medicine, said: "It's a life-changing experience for all of them and some of them will actually use it to change their lives and others will crumble.

"There's a range of emotions I would expect them to go through.

"Feelings of panic, nightmares, anxiety, even physical symptoms are well known after traumatic events.

"Some individuals will be more prone to this than others and it's the long-term support, the psychological support that has been assured to these miners, that will help them to possibly overcome these problems if they do occur."

The men, who set a new record for the length of time workers have survived underground after a mining accident, have been doing exercises to keep their weight down for their ascent.

As they were pulled to the surface, a video camera in the escape capsule watched for panic attacks.

The miners' pulse, skin temperature and respiration rate are constantly measured through a monitor around their abdomens.

To prevent blood clotting from the quick ascent, they took aspirin and wore compression socks.

Medics say some of the men are psychologically fragile and may struggle with stress for a long time after their rescue.