All 33 Chile miners freed in flawless rescue

[cal04]

Source: MSNBC

Chile's trapped miners were shuttled up a narrow escape shaft to freedom and joyous reunions on Wednesday in a meticulously planned rescue operation that ended the longest underground entrapment in human history.

One after another, the miners climbed into a missile-like steel capsule barely wider than a man's shoulders and took a 15-minute journey through 2,000 feet of rock to the surface.

All of the miners were freed Wednesday night in a rescue operation that advanced rapidly without hitches.

Scenes of jubilation erupted each time a miner arrived to a hero's welcome above the San Jose gold and copper mine in Chile's northern Atacama desert.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39625809/ns/world_news-americas/

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What an amazing job everyone did! Incredible

[iamtechus]

1. Occasionally we hear about trapped miners in other countries,

China for instance, but we never hear what happens to them :shrug:

[snagglepuss]

5. The Chinese govt and businesses don't give a rat's ass about its people.

Their idea about dealing with a disaster is simply doing a cover up.

[Tx4obama]

2. The SIX rescue workers are still underground. It's not over yet. n/t

[boppers]

4. There were five for a while...

Last shot I saw had six, though.

[Tx4obama]

6. n/t

[snagglepuss]

7. Very brave men to go into that. Kudos to the last one making the ascent.

May all go well.

[scarletwoman]

10. One of them is a woman. nt

[Tx4obama]

13. Nope.

It turned out that the one that first looked like a woman in the split second that I saw the video coming from below ground - was a MAN with a ponytail.

[boppers]

15. Long haired people get that a lot.

Me even more so, because I dress in kilts and have red and purple streaks in my hair (which goes down to my waist).

[Bluzmann57]

3. Great news!

It really is nice to hear some good news for a change. Wonderful and the men looked pretty good all things considered.

[savalez]

8. Yay!

[jennied]

9. This story is amazing.

From the miners that were able to keep an amazing attitude for so many days, to the workers that worked so well together to get them out, to the country that stood behind them all. Truly amazing and inspiring.

[unkachuck]

11. "...miners were shuttled up a narrow escape shaft to freedom..."

....I'm so glad this turned out well....I get creeped-out claustrophobic riding in an elevator....

....congratulations to all who helped bring these miners up alive from the bowels of the earth....now that's what I call being 'born-again'!

[Rhiannon12866]

12. The sign said "Mision compleda Chile"

This time, it's appropriate... :applause:

[cal04]

14. Rescuer lifted out

looks like one more to go

[cal04]

16. Last Resucer OUT!

Finally over!
:woohoo:

[NBachers]

17. Three cheers for engineering, science, hard work, and book learning

What part of this entire rescue didn't entail some kind of hard-core math application?

[ProgressiveEconomist]

18. Control over the TV feed from the mine reminded me of the BP "blowout preventer" feed

In this case, the Chilean president risked his reputation by releasing the government TV feed to the world, going to the site, and staying awake more than 24 hours to hug every rescued miner and every safely-returned rescuer.

Raising the political stakes in this way apparently gave the president huge increases in his favorability ratings, but things easily could have gone the other way had rescue technology failed. The image stuck in my mind is the gantry over the 2000-foot hole. Clockwise rotation of the big cable wheel on top meant "UP" for the escape capsule, while counterclockwise rotation meant "DOWN".

But had things not worked out so beautifully, another image would have been stuck in millions of minds. The Chilean government was ready to cut the feed or crudely deploy a huge makeshift Chilean flag as an opaque screen to cover up tragedy. Reporters and all but a few relatives were kept hundreds of feet away, but just imagine the hell they would have raised had the Chilean government suppressed information as nakedly as they apparently planned if it had been expedient.

It seems that the whole world is institutionalizing "the feed" for every continuing disaster concentrated in a defined space.

[canetoad]

19. Yep. And there are a lot of good reasons for that

Especially in the case of the Chilean mine rescue.

What you call 'institutionalising' the feed was a brilliant move. It ensured that there were a number of good quality, live feeds from different locations around the surface and one in the mine itself. No matter which outlet you chose to view, you were seeing the same as every other person on earth with a media connection.

This cut out the scrum of reporters at the rescue site, congestion and distraction for the rescue workers. It negated the 'big' media outlets gaining superior coverage over the smaller ones.

The immaculate handling of the media during the rescue was the final stage in an extremely well planned rescue operation.

[rabs]

20. Right on ! +1 (n/t)

[ProgressiveEconomist]

21. "Negated the 'big' media outlets gaining superior coverage"--Great point. 'The feed'

may be a response to past PR and biased media manipulation of events for the benefit of some favored entity. It evens the media playing field, especially if it is available on the Internet to any blogger.

But one of the basic principles of the politics of the feed seems to be: Don't ever turn it off!

Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) IMO put a huge damper on BP's Gulf oil-spill PR when he insisted that the feed NOT be turned off during the failed "top kill" operation. If BO had been able to turn off the feed at will, no one would have been able to SEE the worst instances of millions of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf, and there would have been much less political pressure on that company to take responsibility for its negligence.

Thankfully we didn't see what would have happened to the Chilean feed had something gone wrong.

[JNelson6563]

22. Well said Canetoad

As usual. :toast:

[Dead_Parrot]

23. Wish we could give them some beer to celebrate...

...but I heard it's illegal to give alcohol to miners.

:hide: