33 miners brought back to life

Associated Press

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile

The first of six rescue workers who went down to bring out 33 trapped miners was the last person to get back to the surface, leaving behind an empty, wrecked mine.

Manuel Gonzalez waited alone a half-mile down for 26 minutes while the escape capsule went up and came back down for him. He talked by phone with other rescuers at the top while waiting, joking that he was praying the capsule showed up.

A video feed showed him gesture triumphantly, then bow before making an awkward climb into the capsule, drawing cries of “Careful! Careful!” from those at the surface. Then he strapped himself in and shut the door before disappearing up the shaft.

In all, the operation took just over 24 hours after the first miner was pulled out at 12:11 a.m. Wednesday, a marathon broadcast on live television that captivated the world.

The intricately planned rescue moved with remarkable speed — and flawless execution — in ending history’s longest underground entrapment.

After 69 days underground, including two weeks during which they were feared dead, the men emerged to the cheers of exuberant Chileans and before the eyes of a transfixed globe. The operation picked up speed as the day went on, but each miner was greeted with the same boisterous applause from rescuers.

“Welcome to life,” President Sebastian Pinera told Victor Segvia, the 15th miner out. On a day of superlatives, it seemed no overstatement.

They rejoined a world intensely curious about their ordeal, and certain to offer fame and jobs. Previously unimaginable riches awaited men who had risked their lives going into the unstable gold and copper mine for about $1,600 a month.

The miners made the smooth ascent inside a capsule called Phoenix — 13 feet tall, barely wider than their shoulders and painted in the white, blue and red of the Chilean flag. It had a door that stuck occasionally, and some wheels had to be replaced, but it worked exactly as planned.

Beginning at midnight Tuesday, and sometimes as quickly as every 25 minutes, the pod was lowered the nearly half-mile to where 700,000 tons of rock collapsed Aug. 5 and entombed the men.

Then, after a quick pep talk from rescue workers who had descended into the mine, a miner would strap himself in, make the journey upward and emerge from a manhole into the blinding sun.

The rescue was planned with extreme care. The miners were monitored by video on the way up for any sign of panic. They had oxygen masks, dark glasses to protect their eyes from the unfamiliar sunlight and sweaters for the jarring transition from subterranean swelter to chilly desert air.

As they neared the surface, a camera attached to the top of the capsule showed a brilliant white piercing the darkness not unlike what accident survivors describe when they have near-death experiences.

The miners emerged looking healthier than many had expected and even clean-shaven. No one in recorded history has survived as long trapped underground. For the first 17 days, no one even knew whether they were alive. In the weeks that followed, the world was captivated by their endurance and unity.