The two thousand ten Chilean Mining Rescue (B)
The two thousand ten Chilean Mining Rescue (B)
As news of the miners' survival spread, media interest intensified. Journalists and writers around the world boarded flights to Chile. Andre Sougarret and Rene Aguilar vigilantly protected the technical team from media glare, while the team worked to drill two additional probe holes to complete the set of three holes needed to provide the miners with food, air, and communication. As millions of viewers around the world celebrated the miners' survival, a survey of their health revealed them to be physically fragile. Mario Sepúlveda had lost a tooth in one of his escape attempts, Víctor Segovia was having severe earaches, Mario Gómez was having difficulty breathing, José Ojeda was diabetic, and all needed vaccinations for pneumonia and diphtheria.
Above Ground: Days eighteen to twenty-eight
Above Ground: Days eighteen to twenty-eight
In the early days of the crisis, President Sebastian Piñera had asked aides to contact experts in supporting people in extreme confinement. In response, specialists from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration and from the Chilean Navy's submarine fleet arrived at San José shortly after contact had been made with the thirty-three miners. Applauding the efforts underway, NASA experts warned Chile's team of health professionals of potentially difficult reactions during and after extreme confinement, including rebellion against established leadership, swings between euphoria and stress, and fatigue from the monotony of daily routine. They recommended better lighting to simulate day and night for the miners, maintaining a strict organizational hierarchy below ground, and supplementing miners' daily chores with reading and watching movies.
In search of a precedent to guide the rescue approach at San Jose, the off-site consulting team studied past mining accidents. Notably, in two thousand two, an accident at the Quecreek mine in Pennsylvania, had left nine miners trapped at a depth of about seventy-five meters. Although trapped at a much shallower point than the thirty-three Chilean miners, the rescue of the nine miners- using escape capsules sent down through drilled holes-had been considered a remarkable feat at the time. Now it was a suitable example for study. Using the shoulder width of the largest of the trapped miners as a baseline for measurement, the design of an escape capsule for San José was commissioned. The Chilean Navy, in collaboration with NASA and people who had worked on the Quecreek rescue, began building these capsules. Meanwhile, the work of the off-site consulting team during the search period meant that at least one of the rescue options evaluated by them was ready for execution.