Related News:
Chile Miners to Get Advice From ‘Alive’ Survivors
The 33 miners trapped in an underground mine in northern Chile will receive a message of unity from survivors of the 1972 Andes Mountains plane crash, whose story is told in the movie “Alive.”
Four of the survivors will talk to the trapped Atacama Desert miners tomorrow after they met today with President Sebastian Pinera in the presidential palace in Santiago.
The miners have shown that by sticking together and staying organized they know how to endure a rescue effort that could take three or four months, one of the survivors, Ramon Sabella, said in an interview today. Pinera said today that engineers are working to rescue the miners by Christmas.
“If we could survive under much worse circumstances --or perhaps different, without a means to communicate to the outside world, isolated and abandoned-- they know they’ll get out of there,” Sabella said after meeting with Pinera. “They must remain united and together. They can’t ever give up.”
Sabella was one of 16 survivors of a 1972 crash of a plane carrying 45 passengers, mostly Uruguayan rugby players and students, to Chile. They survived more than two months in the Andes by eating the flesh of dead victims.
Drilling Begins
Chilean rescue teams began drilling this week a hole big enough to lift the miners out of tunnels where temperatures exceed 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit). The rescue may be shortened to two months from an original estimate of four, Walter Herrera, whose company is installing the drilling machine to bore a second tunnel, said Aug. 28.
Authorities will set up an oil drill as a third option to rescue the miners who have been trapped about 700 meters (2,300 feet) below the surface since Aug. 5, Pinera said. The rig, whose platform requires an area the size of a soccer field, will begin drilling by Sept. 18, Chile’s independence day, he said.
“We are doing everything humanly possible, as we promised from the first day, to rescue our miners who are in good spirits and in good health,” Pinera said.
The government will set up a videoconferencing system tomorrow that will allow the miners to speak to their families and the rescue team, Pinera said.
They will be able to watch Chile’s national soccer team play Ukraine in a friendly match Sept. 7, he said.
To contact the reporters responsible for this story: Matthew Craze at mcraze@bloomberg.net
Rate These Stories
Rate this Page