First Chilean miner rescued

Mister Earl said:
I worry a bit about that shuttle / capsule. If the line were to break, do the wheels on that thing have any kind of brake?
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I thought about that too: what if it snaps now? Then I saw the cable in an up close shot. It looks pretty thick and strong. Also, they seem to use a pulley (the orange one) to keep the cable from scraping the sides of the shaft (I think that's what it's for). And even if it would break, perhaps the air pressure beneath will keep it from falling too fast. Not too sure about that though.
But I wouldn't worry about that, I guess they thought it through pretty well.
 
My understanding is the main danger is rock crumbling within the shaft itself, rather than having the line break.

So far it looks like everything is going a-ok, though! :)
 
arthwollipot said:
I wonder how they decided who would be first?
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I heard that the first two were strong characters, so that if anything had gone wrong with the ascent of the cage, they would be able to cope.
what a fantastic world-wide co-operative effort.

ETA I should have read on a bit because of course the answer was in the following post.

I wonder whether this event, with the details of how all the engineering was done, just might make a few more people seriously question the role of what they think their God's part in all this was?
 
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SusanB-M1 said:
I wonder whether this event, with the details of how all the engineering was done, just might make a few more people seriously question the role of what they think their God's part in all this was?
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I wish that happened, but I'm guessing it won't. Did you see the shirt at least some of the miners were given to wear as they were rescued?

It said, "¡Gracias Señor!", helpfully translated right below as "Thank you Lord!" :rolleyes:

http://latimesphoto.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/la-fg-miners07.jpg
 
I'm not sure any of these people would see that as an "either/or" proposition.

21 and counting.

Rolfe.
 
I wonder if Alex Vega has been rescued yet and if he has seen his dog Sandra, who has apparently been waiting at the mine since they were trapped.
 
Wasn't the original predictions for when the miners would be able to be extracted as being close to Christimas? I haven't seen much comment on the fact that the rescue effort managed to get well ahead of the original estimates.
 
22 and counting.

ETA: That was only half an hour!

Rolfe.
 
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Just reading about Yonni Barrios (#21):

His home life became an issue when his wife confronted a mistress who also went to the mine during the long vigil. The mistress was there as he came up, giving him a big hug. His wife did not attend.

His sister, Lidia Barrios Rojas, told London's Daily Telegraph: "He says quite simply that he loves them both, that they are both important to him and he wants them to be friends with each other."
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How awful for everyone involved.
 
Corsair 115 said:
Wasn't the original predictions for when the miners would be able to be extracted as being close to Christimas? I haven't seen much comment on the fact that the rescue effort managed to get well ahead of the original estimates.
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The initial estimate was for the 'Plan A' drill, this was having to drill straight down from the peak of the mountain, drilling a pilot hole, then widening it out. The rescue has actually used the shaft sunk by the 'Plan B' drill from lower on the hill, using one of the existing boreholes.
 
If they keep this up, at 30 minutes a skull, they'll all be up in less than 24 hours from the first guy emerging. Though they will have some rescue workers who went down to raise after that, I'm not sure how many.

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe said:
If they keep this up, at 30 minutes a skull, they'll all be up in less than 24 hours from the first guy emerging. Though they will have some rescue workers who went down to raise after that, I'm not sure how many.

Rolfe.
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I'm watching some of the live feed from down inside the mine, as they load up each guy into the rescue pod and cheer him on his way to the surface.

I was thinking, it's gotta be very lonely and scary for the last guy to go up, all alone down there, no one to cheer for him...
 
At least the last guy won't be one of the miners. I think at least four rescue workers went down at the beginning, and they'll stay to see off all the miners.

The last miner is scheduled to be the foreman, who held them all together during the first part of the drama when they were completely cut off. I imagine the last person altogether will be the mining engineer who went down first with the capsule.

Rolfe.
 
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