*CHILE** Meticulous rescue operation and loads of luck save 33 trapped Chilean miners
By Jacob K. Philip* It was a mission destined to be a success. Los 33—a nickname the miners who were trapped at a depth of 2,040 feet in the San Jose mine in the dusty hills of the Atacama desert in Chile called themselves—should be the ones chosen by God. That is the most sensible explanation for all the numerous things that fell into place in one of the most difficult rescue operations ever. The chain of miracles started the moment 7,50,000 tonnes of rock rolled down to seal the entrance of the mine on August 5. It was lunchtime and all 33 men were together. Had the disaster struck moments earlier or later, they would have been at job, scattered along the tunnels. Some of them might have died instantly. The second miracle was one of them—shift supervisor Luis Urzua. He turned out to be a real leader, someone just made for such a situation. Urzua led the group in the pitch darkness to a ventilation shaft. They found the ladder and began climbing up, only to find that there were no steps after 500 feet. Not losing courage, they headed for the shelter made for trapped miners. Many of the mine’s galleries were intact and so were some vehicles. They removed the batteries to provide light and power. Then they used diggers to excavate for water. Water, too, sprang up, enough to drink, wash and clean. They dug latrines, with natural springs washing away the waste. Another natural spring was used for showering. There was milk, tuna, peach and biscuits in the chamber. The stock would not have lasted beyond 48 hours, had not Urzua imposed strict rationing—two spoonfuls of tuna, a sip of milk, a biscuit and a morsel of peach every 48 hours. Then began the long wait for the saviours to come. In the 17 long days followed, each of these 33 men tuned out to be an invaluable resource. Raul Bustos, a hydraulics engineer, had worked on the water supply system in the mine and without him they would not have struck water. Jose Henriquez, who was an evangelical preacher, gave unrelenting spiritual strength and hope. Yonni Barrios’s years of experience in helping his diabetic mother made him a general medical adviser to his colleagues. Jimmy Sanchez, 19, was the whiz-kid around and he checked the mine’s temperature and humidity daily. While the miners clung to hope, 2,000 feet above them the frantic efforts to locate them seemed to be reaching nowhere, till Macarena Valdes, the topographer of the search team, decided to rely on her hunch. “It was like using a shotgun to hit a mosquito at 700 metres,” she said. When probes after probes failed to find the mark, Valdes thought of one degree correction they were applying to the angle recommended by geologists to adjust for vibration. And for the next drill, she decided to stick to the original angle. The drill came back with a note tied at the end: “Estamos bien en el refugio los 33 (We are fine in the refuge, all 33 of us).” The rescue operation cost about $22 million. The extensive use of technology began with the supply of essentials into the shelter. Food, medicine and clothes were sent down through a five-inch-diameter shaft. Thanks to optical fibre technology, audio and video links were easily established. Each miner got about 2,200 calories a day, as rescuers did not want them to become too big for the escape pod. The Chilean government reached out to NASA for advice on how to construct the pod used to haul them to the surface. Twenty NASA engineers brainstormed to design the 14-foot high rescue capsule, called Phoenix. The 54cm-wide capsule, which was pulled up along the 66cm-wide hole, was equipped with oxygen supply, communication system, a harness that monitored the occupant’s vital signs and a drop-through escape hatch that would allow a miner to descend back to the bottom if something went wrong. Nothing went wrong, and Phoenix ferried all 33 miners, one at a time, to the surface. http://week.manoramaonline.com/cgi-bin/MMOnline.dll/portal/ep/theWeekContent.do?BV_ID=@@@&contentType=EDITORIAL§ionName=TheWeekCurrent Events&programId=1073754900&contentId=8085701
