Chile Nears End of Rescue Operation for 33 Miners

Chilean rescuers were nearing the end of a marathon operation to rescue 33 miners trapped underground for more than two months. All of the rescued miners are being sent for medical treatment and that several are expected to undergo surgery in the coming days.

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Chilean officials say the rescue operation at the San Jose mine in northern Chile is advancing more quickly than expected and could conclude before Thursday. Initially, officials said it might take 48 hours to pull the miners to the surface through a 622-meter rescue shaft.

Rescue crews have been honing the process throughout the day, enabling them to pull each miner to the surface in about 15 minutes.

Rescue crews and officials cheer and clap as each miner arrives at the surface, where family members are waiting for him. Medical teams rush each man to a hospital in nearby Copiapó for a thorough examination.

Chile's President Sebastián Piñera is at the site to greet each rescued miner.

After Victor Zamora surfaced, Mr. Piñera told him that he was never alone, saying that the government fulfilled its promise to bring the men back alive.

The rescue ends a two-month-long ordeal for the men, who were trapped by a cave-in at the gold and copper mine on August 5. The men were cut off from the surface for 17 days, until a drilling crew located them.

Chilean Mining Minister Laurence Golborne offered thanks to scores of experts and others who have helped carry out the rescue operation. But he cautioned that the job was not over yet.

Golborne said weeks of work are finally paying off, but officials will not be satisfied until the rescue is completed.

Health Minister Jaime Mañalich says many of the miners appear to be in better health than expected. He says each miner will undergo a series of tests, including a lung x-ray and heart monitoring, and that some might receive psychiatric treatment, if needed.

A few miners are expected to receive dental surgery in the coming days to treat abscesses and other conditions. Mañalich says the most serious case was a miner with pneumonia.

He says the miner will likely remain in intensive care for several days to receive oxygen and other treatments.

More than 1,000 journalists are covering the rescue operation at the remote San Jose mine in the Atacama desert. During the past two months, relatives of the miners and rescue crews have gathered outside the mine, forming a community they call Camp Hope.

Millions of people around the world are watching the rescue operation unfold on television. In Washington, U.S. President Barack Obama says he watched the first miner being freed, adding that it was a tribute to the hard work of the rescue workers and the Chilean people. He thanked people from around the world who contributed to the operation, including a U.S.-based drilling team and experts from the U.S. space agency, NASA.

(source:voa)

Chilean Miners Rise to Freedom, One-by-One

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile — To hugs, cheers and tears, rescuers using a missile-like escape capsule began pulling 33 men one by one to fresh air and freedom at last early Wednesday, 69 days after they were trapped in a collapsed mine almost a half-mile underground.

Eight men were pulled out in the early hours of the operation in the Chilean desert — a drama in which the world was captivated by the miners' endurance and unity as officials meticulously prepared their rescue.

Like wives on the surface who had their hair and nails done for the occasion, the men looked groomed and clean-shaven.

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Rescued first was Florencio Avalos, 31, who wore a helmet and sunglasses to protect him from the glare of bright lights. He smiled broadly as he emerged and hugged his sobbing 7-year-old son, Bairon, and wife, then got a bearhug from Chilean President Sebastian Pinera shortly after midnight local time.

Video: Watch live video of rescue operation (on this page)

A second miner, Mario Sepulveda, 40, was pulled to the surface about an hour later — his shouts heard even before the capsule surfaced. After hugging his wife, Elvira, he jubilantly handed souvenir rocks from his underground prison to laughing rescuers.

"I'm so happy!" Sepulveda yelled, grinning, punching his fist in the air and hugging everyone in sight. Sepulveda later said he had spent the last 10 weeks "between God and the devil."

"They fought, God won," he added.

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A third Chilean miner, Juan Illanes, 52, followed after another hour. He called the trip to the surface a "cruise" and then jumped up and down as if to prove his strength.

The lone Bolivian, Carlos Mamani, 24, was pulled out fourth, and was expected to meet Bolivian President Evo Morales, the national television station TVN reported.

Mamani was greeted by his wife, Veronica, with a hug and kiss that knocked off her white hardhat as Chile's president and first lady held small Bolivian flags. Mamani also gestured with both forefingers at the Chilean flag on his T-shirt and shouted "Gracias, Chile!" before a round of backslapping with rescuers.

Jimmy Sanchez, 19, hugged his father after reaching the surface. He was the fifth worker to leave the mine.

Through the first four rescues, the operation held to a schedule announced earlier to get all the miners out in about 36 hours.

Workers carried out maintenance work on the capsule before sending it back down the shaft to collect the sixth miner, Osman Araya, 30. Mining Minister Laurence Golborne confirmed that it was a routine wheel substitution and that the operation was going well, NBC News reported.

Araya emerged and embraced his tearful wife, Angelica. The seventh miner, Jose Ojeda, who turned 47 on Monday, was rescued next and was met by his stepdaughter, Elisabeth. He made headlines for writing the message, "We are OK the 33 of us in the refuge."

The eighth miner, Claudio Yanez, 34, emerged just as dawn was breaking.

National crisis

When the last man surfaces, it promises to end a national crisis that began when 700,000 tons of rock collapsed Aug. 5, sealing the men in the lower reaches of the mine.

After the first capsule came out of the manhole-sized opening, Avalos emerged on the surface to breathe his first fresh air after a claustrophobic ascent of around 2,050 feet through thick rock as bystanders cheered, clapped and broke into a chant of "Chi! Chi! Chi! Le! Le! Le!" — the country's name.

Avalos gave a thumbs-up as he was led to an ambulance and medical tests following his more than two months deep below the Chilean desert — the longest anyone has ever been trapped underground and survived.

Avalos, the 31-year-old second-in-command of the miners, was chosen to be first because he was in the best condition. He has been so shy that he volunteered to handle the camera rescuers sent down so he wouldn't have to appear on the videos that the miners sent up.

Pinera later explained they had not planned for Avalos' family to join rescuers at the opening of the shaft, but that little Bairon insisted on being there.

"I told Florencio that few times have I ever seen a son show so much love for his father," the president said.

"This won't be over until all 33 are out," he added. "Hopefully the spirit of these miners will remain forever with us. ... This country is capable of great things."

Minutes earlier, mine rescue expert Manuel Gonzalez of the state copper company Codelco grinned and made the sign of the cross as he was lowered to the trapped men — apparently without incident. He was followed by Roberto Rios, a paramedic with the Chilean navy's special forces, who helped prepare the miners for rescue.

"We made a promise to never surrender, and we kept it," Pinera said as he waited to greet the miners, whose endurance and unity captivated the world as Chile meticulously prepared their rescue.

The last miner out has been decided: Shift foreman Luis Urzua, whose leadership was credited for helping the men endure 17 days with no outside contact after the collapse. The men made 48 hours' worth of rations last before rescuers reached them with a narrow borehole to send down more food.

Janette Marin, sister-in-law of miner Dario Segovia, said the order of rescue didn't matter.

"This won't be a success unless they all get out," she said, echoing the solidarity that

(source:msnbc.msn.com)

First three Chilean miners chosen for rescue today

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile: The rescue of the 33 trapped Chilean miners is to begin this afternoon, with a 31-year-old father of two chosen as the first man out.

Thousands at the site are excitedly waiting to see the first of the miners triumphantly emerge from a 10-week underground ordeal.

He is reportedly driver Florencio Avalos, the second in command in the work crew, whose brother Renan is also trapped.

The sense of anticipation was palpable just hours before the start of an operation to hoist up the miners, set to get under way in a few hours' time after a delay today to test telecommunications equipment.

It is expected to take at least an hour for each rescue, with about 20 minutes for the miner to be hoisted up the 620m rescue shaft individually in a specially designed capsule.

A paramedic will be sent down and up the shaft first to test the capsule. Live video shows the capsule being prepared for its first mission.Florencio will be followed by Mario Sepulveda, 39, an electrical specialist, who is also married, and then by Carlos Mamani, the only Bolivian in the group of the 33 trapped miners. Each man will be flown to hospital immediately after their rescue and reunited with up to three relatives, officials have said.

Avalos had been the second in command of the group before the collapse, assisting his friend Luis Urzua. But friends describe him as shy. After the men were found and cameras sent down, he often acted as cameraman, taking pictures of the other miners - a role that frustrated relatives who saw little of him in the videos.

"I am not surprised'' that he was chosen, his mother Maria Silva said after word reached the family. "I am so proud of him.''

"We made a promise to never surrender, and we kept it,'' Chilean President Sebastien Pinera said, shortly before two rescue workers were expected to go down to prepare the miners for their trip. The President said the first miner will be brought up about two hours later.

The outdoor tent village, dubbed Camp Hope, which has sprung up outside the mine to house the men's families has become increasingly frenetic in the past few days, with thousands flocking to the site to witness the historic rescue.

Now the mood is more frenzied than ever, in anticipation of today's happy ending to what many initially feared was Chile's worst ever mining disaster.

The miners' relatives were preparing for joyful and tearful reunions ahead. But there was also a touch of anxiety.

“I'm a little nervous, we've never spent so much time apart,” said Cristina Nunez, the longtime partner of miner Claudio Yanez.

“I didn't sleep much. I went to bed at 4:30am and woke up at 6am,” said Alberto Segovia, who has been maintaining an anxious vigil for his brother Dario.

The men have been trapped for 10 weeks, since an August 5 mine collapse, turning their unprecedented underground survival into a tale of immense international human interest.

The 32 Chileans and one Bolivian have become national heroes and imminent media stars, with books, movies and a barrage of press coverage likely from the moment they emerge from the mine.

In the ultimate sign of just how big a spectacle the miners' rescue has become, television megastar Don Francisco - one of the biggest celebrities in all of Latin America - was preparing to broadcast from the site.

“I haven't seen so much media attention since the Apollo XI back in 1969,” said the Chilean performer, referring to the NASA mission that sent men to the moon for the first time.

A household name throughout Latin America, Don Francisco was just one of the hundreds of journalists milling around at the entrance to the mine, their numbers swelling with each passing hour ahead of the start of the rescue.

Top dignitaries were also arriving, with Mr Pinera being joined later by his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales.

The blaring of a siren, and a pulsating light were to announce the arrival of each miner at the surface, signaling to waiting medical teams to be on the alert.

Chile has taken extensive precautions to ensure the miners' health and privacy, sending down Navy special forces paramedics to prepare them for the trip and using a screen to block the top of the shaft from more than 1000 journalists at the scene.

The miners will be ushered through an inflatable tunnel, like those used in sports stadiums, to an ambulance for a trip of several hundred metres to a triage station for an immediate medical check. They will gather with a few family members, in an area also closed to the media, before being transported by helicopter to a hospital.

Each ride up is expected to take about 20 minutes, and authorities expect they will be able to haul up roughly one miner an hour.

The only media allowed to record them coming out of the shaft will be a government photographer and Chile's state television channel. Their images will be delayed about 30 seconds or more to prevent the release of anything unexpected.

The worst technical problem that could happen, rescue coordinator Andre Sougarett told The Associated Press, is that ``a rock could fall,'' potentially jamming the capsule partway up the shaft. But test rides suggest the ride up will be smooth.

Panic attacks are the rescuers' biggest concern. The miners will not be sedated - they need to be alert in case something goes wrong. If a miner must get out more quickly, rescuers will accelerate the capsule to a maximum 3 meters per second, Health Minister Jaime Manalich said.

AFP, AP

(source:theaustralian.com.au)