BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!

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

Yes..

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 02:23 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 - 02:18 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: GUEST,mg
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 01:04 PM

I hadn't heard about the Afghanastani driller but they surely would have a lot of expertise in that mountainous country I would think. What we heard off and on was that it was a driller from Colorado...they could have taken turns of course. All that engineered it and accomplished it are magnificent in my book. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 12:14 PM

"Would you or she mind if I share that beautiful piece of writing (and of her heart)?"

Dani, by all means, please do, and....thank you for understanding. x

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

Lizzie, I've had tears running down my cheeks from the beauty of your friend's posting. Thanks for sharing it.

Patsy, you may have good intentions in what you wrote, but what I read in Lizzie's friend's post was a strong sense of empathy and compassion, as noted above, one mother to another. What parent who has lost a child, wouldn't hope for "Just Once More?"

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 10:59 AM

This rescue has been a marvelous accomplishment by the Chileans.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: GUEST,crazy little woman
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 10:53 AM

The shaft was 2300 feet deep

It curved, but not enough to keep the capsule from making it up and down. Special equipment was used to try to keep it straight.

The top 180 feet of the hole was lined with steel to keep the hole open.

The driller was called in from Afghanistan because 'he is the best in the world' according to his supervisor.

The driller worked for 33 days straight. When there was an unexplained pop sound close to the end of the hole, he said he thought it was his heart giving out.

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

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 08:38 AM

Lizzie, thank you so much for sharing that.

I know exactly what she means. Would you or she mind if I share that beautiful piece of writing (and of her heart)?

Patsy, dear, there are parallels in every lost truly felt. That is where our com-passion comes from.

Dani

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 08:25 AM

It will be a challenge for the ballad composers, a long ballad but with a happy ending!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 07:30 AM

It doesn't use words, it doesn't need to, but I think this BBC piece pretty much says it all. (Hope it's available for those outside the uk)

Click here

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: I don't know
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 04:18 AM

Guest Lizzie Cornish, thank you for that posting it is a moving piece. Thank god all the miners (& rescuers) are all out. May they have some quality time with there families out of the media glare before deciding on there futures. Hope everyone is as well as they appear & none suffer to much mentally from the ordeal. A big thank you to everyone who helped save them.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: Arthur_itus
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 04:13 AM

Well done to all those who made it possible to get the miners out.
Isn't it nice to see everybody pulling together to help each other.
The miners looked remarkably well considering. I know there are knock on medical issues, but to see them all walk out of the capsule smiling, hugging, talking etc, was just amazing.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 04:12 AM

Lizzie, this lady clearly needs to get over the death of her son, probably best she sees a therapist as this isn't a normal grief reaction. Did you tell her there is no parallel in this case and the death of her son. Help her move on and not to make comparisons with other situations.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: GUEST,Lizzie Cornish
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 02:57 AM

This morning I was about to search for youtube footage from the Chilean President, but I found myself first going into Facebook, and there I found the most moving piece of writing I've seen in a very long time.

It's from my dear friend, Gloria...who lost her beloved son, and only child, when he was killed by a drunk driver around 5 years back. Peter Thomas James was just 22 years old. She wrote it whilst watching the rescue of the miners...and I just wanted to share it with others..for all those who watched that incredible rescue and felt as Gloria did....their own searingly painful sense of loss, and their own deep knowledge of love.

'Just Once More'
I have been watching the rescue of the 33 miners from Chile and it has been so heartwarming and touching. But one rescue touched me more than I thought it would.

One young man was on his way up. Waiting for this twenty someth...ing, six foot something young man was his mother. She stood off to the side, in her place, wearing her hard hat and listening to instructions. All the while her face was saying something else, "give him to me". She stood there and with every inch of the rope that made it's way around the wheel, her heart could be seen in her face. Tears, just an eyelid away from falling, her hands wrapped in each other, wringing and whirling with anticipation. You could see her shaking her head yes when someone spoke to her but you knew she wasn't hearing a word they were saying. Her heart was saying, "not now please, just let me see him." This woman who knew this young man before he was born, cared for him, raised him, loved him, waiting now for a glimpse of the only thing in this world that means anything to her.

The time arrived and the top of the capsule was emerging. She was on edge and her body kept making moves toward it, towards him, and yet she held herself strong and in place. The last thing she wanted to do was to do anything wrong now that he was so close. And then magic!!!! Out into the fresh air of the world, HER world just came into sight. She watched as the rescue workers undid every strap that held him in, every inch that kept him safe and all the while every tear in her heart was waiting to touch him. She watched just like she probably did on the day he was born when the doctors checked him out for the first time. Making sure everything was perfect, she now stood to watch and wait to make sure everything is perfect, again. Not one mother can ever forget that amazing moment when your child is first placed in your arms and now she was waiting to have that magical love happen once again. It did. Her son fell into her, reached for her and there she was! She held him, rubbed his back, hug after hug after hug, tear after tear after tear. I felt each one, knew each one, and with each happy one for her, my heart broke, even though I was so happy for her. I have waited so long for my, "just once more". I actually looked at the television and said out loud, "I know, I know". After a few thank yous and hugs from the rescue workers her son was placed on a stretcher to be brought to the hospital just to make sure he is fine. As they were rolling him away, she came out of nowhere and touched his body a few more times and then her hands went up to his face. You could hear her heart begging, "just once more, just once more, please before you take him, just once more". My heart is filled with love for this mother, my eyes are filled with tears, and my soul is filled with words, "just once more, just once more, please before you take him, just once more.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners - All Out & Safe!
From: open mike
Date: 14 Oct 10 - 12:08 AM

hooray!!

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 11:42 PM

.. so, by now media savvy miners prepared for the inevitable live news camera frenzy
on the surface;

.. did the underground rescue worker team include a hair stylist ?

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 11:34 PM

All Out, now, including rescuers!!! Yes, I feel like a party, too, Ebbie!!

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: Ebbie
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 11:10 PM

Isn't it just stupendous! I feel like a party- but I'll have to wait until Friday. No problem- the wonderful feeling will last.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 11:09 PM

Only one rescue worker left to bring up.

Just by chance I finished reading "Shackleton's Boat Journey" by F. A. Worley, today. Near the very end, Shackleton and Worley were trying to return to Elephant Island to rescue their shipmates from the Endeavour after it was crushed by ice in Antarctica. After three attempts, Worley writes, "the Chilean Government came nobly to the rescue. They lent Shackleton the little steamer "Ylecho." And, finally, they were able, after 16 months on the ice, to rescue their fellow explorers of the 1914-1916 expedition. Seems Chile had some good karmic brownie points to redeem.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 10:54 PM

Still going live on BBC from what I can tell...it's says it is live.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 10:54 PM

I like a happy ending.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 09:33 PM

Great story. Fantastic Rescue!
Kudos to BBC News TV for carrying the entire rescue from start to finish.
The BBC News, carried here in Canada on cable, is the best news service we have. CNN, etc, are pitiful by comparison.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: ragdall
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 09:21 PM

First volunteer is on the way up. Five more to go.

rags

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: skipy
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 09:09 PM

Wonderful! And grown men SHOULD cry when they have a reason or need too. Maybe it is the less grown, lacking feelings & soul that don't!
Great fete of engineering, well done to all the unsung heros who made it happen.
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: Don Firth
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 09:06 PM

Fantastic! Watching a live feed from Chile right now.

The last miner is up!

Nice to watch some really good news for a change!!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: ClaireBear
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 09:05 PM

What a wonder to participate in this via Internet. Sometimes this technology leaves me breathless.

C

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 09:02 PM

33 up - now just the 3 volunteers who went down ....

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: ragdall
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 08:33 PM

Thirty-two up, one miner to go. The TV news (CTV) is saying there are six rescue workers down there.

rags

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: Sorcha
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 08:08 PM

How did they decide who is next? Other than obvious medical conditions? I'm pretty damn impressed by this whole thing!

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: ragdall
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 07:47 PM

Thirty up. Three plus two to go. The last two won't have been underground very long.

mg, are you suggesting a new song, Una Mariposa Blanca?

rags

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 07:06 PM

One said that they were driving a truck and stopped it to look at a white butterfly that flew in somehow and then the mine collapsed and they say the butterfly saved them...una ________ blanca ..great song.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 06:34 PM

After the 33 there will still be three rescue workers to go up. And remember, they volunteered to go down that hole...

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 06:29 PM

BTW...if you have broadband and GoogleEarth, you can type in Copiapó, Chile and look up the valley and see the mine location....very bare & dry

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 06:22 PM

The 'last man' will be one of the rescue team... I hope they get the recognition they deserve.

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: ragdall
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 06:19 PM

Twenty-six up, seven to go. Can you imagine what it will be like for the last man standing alone in that mine waiting for the capsule to go up and come down again?

Oops, make that twenty-seven! Wonderful to watch good news for a change!

rags

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: Ed T
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 06:02 PM

In my previous post, on Springhill there is a live TV broadcast from 1956. It is clip number 4.

Compare what we see today, on CNN BBC and others to live broadcasts then:Clip 4

Subject: RE: BS: Chilean trapped miners
From: Ed T
Date: 13 Oct 10 - 05:42 PM

Brings me back to the Springhill Nova Scotia coal mine disaster(s) those who survived and those who did not.

My hat off to all miners, worldwide.


the Dubliners


Springhill coal mine disaster