BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 01:08 PM

Oh I was confused...he was the guy from COlorado but was drilling for Army in Afghanistan. Same guy. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 01:28 PM

From:HERE

American contractor Jeff Hart led the drilling effort to reach the trapped miners in Chile

Before he joined the rescue effort in Chile, Jeff Hart was drilling water wells for the U.S. Army's forward operating bases in Afghanistan. The contractor from Denver, Colorado, spent 33 days operating the drill that finally broke through to the miners last weekend. "You have to feel through your feet what the drill is doing; it's a vibration you get so that you know what's happening," says Hart, 40. After the Aug. 5 collapse at the privately-owned owned San Jose mine, the state-owned Codelco mining company reached out to Geotec Boyles Bros., a U.S.-Chilean company, to handle one of three simultaneous drilling efforts to rescue the miners. Geotec assembled a team of drillers, including engineers from two Pennsylvania companies - Schramm Inc., which makes the T130 drill, and Center Rock Inc., which makes the larger than average drill bits. Hart, a specialist with handling the T130, was summoned from Afghanistan. Hart says it was the toughest hole he's drilled, due to the tough quartzite rock that sits between the mine's veins of gold and copper. Hart received a champagne shower after breaking through to the miners on Saturday.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 01:54 PM

I don't watch TV. Tell me, did these extraordinary efforts get any attention or credit at all? Doesn't sound like it.

The BBC rightly gave the drilling crew a fair bit of attention.
..........................

I see there's a suggestion that, because the BBC put so much into covering this, it might scale down its coverage of the Oscars. That sounds as if it got its priorities dead right.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 02:12 PM

And here is the first man who used the Phoenix capsule to go down into the mine, and the last to use it to come out. Last rescuer, Manuel Gonzales, leaves Chile mine

From the BBC website, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 02:18 PM

Jeff Hart's drill bit was a percussion type (rotation plus percussion) for hard-rock drilling. The bit, made by a company in Pennsylvania, was the reason his drill beat the other two, which depended only on rotating diamond fitted bits.

Credit belongs to many, as the Chilean president pointed out. Some contributions were large, some small, but they all helped.

The capsule was built in the shops of the Chilean Navy.
The dark glasses and some other equipment, one of the small contributions, came from a company here in Calgary.
The cable was rapidly shipped from Germany, where its type is made to hold gondolas on aerial tramways.
Geotec engineers helped in several ways.

Guest CLW, many more need credit; a few were mentioned in passing but somewhere a full iisting should be posted.

The section boss (last man up) kept discipline among his crew, extremely important.
The man with paramedic training worked out minimum rations for survival. It was two or more weeks before the men were located and a small conduit drilled through to provide them with food, medicine and contact with the world above.
The families of the men sent messages that kept spirits up.
The Medical Services of Chile helped in many ways.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 02:23 PM

Contributions have been mentioned from CHina, Japan, Ireland, Austria. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 02:34 PM

Yes, so many. I would like to see more than mentions to fill out the picture.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 02:46 PM

OT but do they speak a slower version of Espanol in Chile than they do in the more commonly heard Mexican dialects? I seem to be able to understand a few words now and then of the CHilean broadcasts. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 04:00 PM

They seemed to be wearing harnesses..was there a plan to winch them up personally if the cage got stuck? Probably was..Looked like rapelling gear. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 04:40 PM

The harness, invented by Brian Russell of New Zealand, and made by Zephyr Technology, was designed to monitor vital signs, in this case of the trapped miners. The reason was to make sure the men didn't faint on the way up.

Also used by firefighters, swat teams, military teams, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 04:46 PM

The point of the harness was to hold them upright, in case they passed out while being winched up. If the cage stuck the idea was for the passenger to detach the lower half, and be lowered.
................

Incidentally the chant that was roared out when the miners came up was

"CHI CHI CHI LE LE LE, LOS MINEROS DE CHILE!" - a reworking of what Chile's football supporters use at international football matches - "CHI CHI CHI LE LE LE, VIVA CHILE!" (For example here.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: open mike
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 05:45 PM

Lizzie...thank you for sharing that message. (there is no need to be critical of it or of the mother whose heart went out to the other mother!!) This message helped me to find tears that had not yet
surfaced during the whole ordeal...very cathartic!

Grief counsellors are the first ones to say that each person's grieving process is personal, and that it is not helpful to just
say "you should get over it" as there are many ways to deal with loss.

When my mother died, Hospice workers were so helpful that i wanted
to join thier group to help others thru. (of course it is totally
different when the loss of life is sudden, or the loved one is young)

perhaps that mom could channel her grief thru Mothers Against Drunk Driving and find a support group there. I was hit by a drunk driver
while bicycling and sustained major injuries....an incident that stays with you for a life time!!

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: The Sandman
Date: 15 Oct 10 - 07:57 AM

WHY did the accident happen?were proper safety procedures ignored?

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: Bettynh
Date: 15 Oct 10 - 11:39 AM

GSS, they're investigating.

When someone writes that ballad, please mention that the Chilean rescue teams were immediately drilling. It took more than a couple weeks to contact them, but no rescue would have happened if the miners had died of starvation in that mine. The whole world assisted the rescue, but the first contact should be Chile's pride.

All this happened in a country that moves over about 10 feet every few years. From Wikipedia about this year's earthquake:
"Seismologists estimate that the earthquake was so powerful that it may have shortened the length of the day by 1.26 microseconds and moved the Earth's figure axis by 8 cm or 2.7 milliarcseconds. Precise GPS measurement indicated the telluric movement moved the entire city of Concepción 3.04 metres (10 ft) to the west. The capital Santiago experienced a displacement of almost 24 centimetres (10 in) west, and even Buenos Aires, about 1,350 kilometres (840 mi) from Concepción, shifted 3.9 centimetres (1.5 in). It is estimated that Chile's territory could have expanded 1.2 km² as a result."

This list shows almost 20 major earthquakes since 1960. The Chileans are GOOD at disasters. They have to be.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 15 Oct 10 - 11:39 AM

Yes..