Trapped Miners Finally Rescued – Dale’s Daily Data

Hard to believe it’s already been a year.  It was a year ago today that the last of 33 miners trapped nearly half a mile underground in a caved-in mine in Chile were rescued.  They were trapped for more than two months and that’s the longest anyone had ever been trapped underground and made it out alive.

The men moved to an emergency shelter area when the mine collapsed.  There was just a couple of days worth of food in the shelter, so were forced to ration it out and over the next 17 days they weren’t sure if they’d ever be rescued.  Later they admitted they thought about suicide.  They thought about cannibalism.  But on August 22^nd a drill finally broke into the area where they men were trapped and they sent a note back up to the top that read; “We are fine in the refuge, the 33.”

Food, supplies and a video camera were sent down to the men while suggestions came in from all over the world on how to rescue them.  It was a Pennsylvania company that designed and built a capsule just large enough for one man at a time to be pulled to safety.  It took about 15 minutes to pull each of the men 2,000 feet to safety.

Hundreds of friends and relatives of the miners had camped out at the entrance to the mine for two months and their prayers were answered.  The men were greeted by media from all over the world and even Chile’s president was there.  Less than 24 hours after the rescue operation began, all of the men had been brought to the surface.

Some of the men eventually went back to work.  Many of them quit.  But all of them were given a trip to Disney
World where they were honored with a parade.

Here is the moment when the first of the miners was brought to the surface: