Chile rescue video: 14 of 'Los 33' miners hoisted to freedom

The 11th - 55-year-old Jorge Galleguillos - came up into the desert sun just over 10 hours after the rescue capsule dubbed "Phoenix" extracted the first miner.

The miners jubilantly embraced wives, children and rescuers and looked remarkably composed after languishing for 69 days in the depths of a mine that easily could have been their tomb.

Scenes of jubilation had met the ninth and oldest Chilean miner to be rescued. Mario Heredia, a 63-year-old, had been asked by his wife to retire just days before his fateful descent into the mine.

First up was Florencio Avalos, 31, wearing a helmet and sunglasses to protect him from the glare of rescue lights.

Avalos was followed by Mario Sepulveda Espina, Juan Illanes, Carlos Mamani, Jimmy Sanchez, Osman Araya, Jose Ojeda Vidal,Claudio Lagos Mario Heredia, Richard Salazar and Jorge Orellana.

Mr Avalos smiled broadly as he emerged from the missile-like escape capsule and hugged his sobbing seven-year-old son Bairo and his wife. He also embraced Chilean president Sebastian Pinera and other rescuers.

Also on hand was Mr Avalos' other son and father.

After the capsule was pulled out of a manhole-sized opening at the San Jose mine, Mr Avalos emerged as bystanders cheered, clapped and broke into a chant of "Chi! Chi! Chi! Le! Le! Le!" - the country's name.

Shy Mr Avalos gave a thumbs-up as he was led to an ambulance and a series of medical tests after more than two months deep below the Chilean desert - the longest anyone has ever been trapped underground and survived.

Mr Avalos was chosen to be first because he was in the best condition. He has been so shy that he volunteered to handle the camera rescuers sent down so he would not have to appear on the videos that the miners sent up.

Profile: The man chosen to be the first

Mr Pinera described how lovely it was to see Mr Avalos' sons greet their father, especially young Bairo.

"I told Florencio, that few times have I ever seen a son show so much love for his father," the president said.

"This won't be over until all 33 are out. Hopefully the spirit of these miners will remain forever with us...This country is capable of great things."

Minutes earlier, mine rescue expert Manuel Gonzalez of the state copper company Codelco grinned and made the sign of the cross as he was lowered into the shaft to the trapped men - apparently without incident. He was followed by Roberto Ros, a paramedic with the Chilean navy's special forces. Together they will prepare the miners for their rescue - expected to take as many as 36 hours for all to surface.

The second man pulled to freedom was Mario Sepulveda Espina, who climbed out of the capsule jubilantly hugged his wife, President Pinera and rescuers - then handed them pieces of rock from his underground home.

"We made a promise to never surrender, and we kept it," Mr Pinera said as he waited to greet the miners, whose endurance and unity captivated the world as Chile meticulously prepared their rescue.

The third miner to emerge was Juan Illanes.

As emerged he was asked how his trip was. He replied: "Like a cruise."

Bolivian national Carlos Mamani was the fourth man rescued. He said he will never work in a mine again because of the accident. Bolivia's President Evo Morales has promised Mr Mamani and his family will be given some land in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba.

Fifth man up, Jimmy Sanchez - the youngest miner in the group of 33 - had only been working at the mine for five months.

In a letter to his family before the rescue, Sanchez wrote: "God wanted me to stay here, I do not know why. Maybe for me to change. And I thought and I'll change a lot.

"I have suffered much and do not want to suffer more. In the toughest times I thanked God that I had a daughter.

The last miner out has been decided -shift foreman Luis Urzua, whose leadership was credited for helping the men endure 17 days with no outside contact after the collapse. The men made 48 hours' worth of rations last before rescuers reached them with a narrow borehole to send down more food.

Janette Marin, sister-in-law of miner Dario Segovia, said the order of rescue did not matter.

"This won't be a success unless they all get out," she said, echoing the solidarity that the miners and people across Chile have expressed.

The paramedics can change the order of rescue based on a brief medical check once they are in the mine. First out will be those best able to handle any difficulties and tell their comrades what to expect. Then, the weakest and the ill - in this case, about 10 suffer from hypertension, diabetes, dental and respiratory infections and skin lesions from the mine's oppressive humidity.

The last should be people who are both physically fit and strong of character.

Chile has taken extensive precautions to ensure the miners' privacy, using a screen to block the top of the shaft from thousands of journalists at the scene.

The miners will be ushered through an inflatable tunnel, like those used in sports stadiums, to an ambulance for a trip of several hundred yards to a triage station for a medical check.

They will gather with a few relatives in an area also closed to the media, before being taken by helicopter to a hospital.

Each ride up the shaft is expected to take about 20 minutes and authorities expect they can haul up one miner an hour. When the last man surfaces, it promises to end a national crisis that began when 700,000 tons of rock collapsed on August 5, sealing the miners into the lower reaches of the mine.

The only media allowed to record them coming out of the shaft will be a government photographer and Chile's state TV channel, whose live broadcast will be delayed by 30 seconds or more to prevent the release of anything unexpected. Photographers and camera operators are on a platform more than 300 feet away.

The capsule - the biggest of three built by Chilean navy engineers - was named Phoenix for the mythical bird that rises from ashes. It is painted in the white, blue and red of the Chilean flag.

The miners were being closely monitored from the moment they're strapped in the capsule. They were given a high-calorie liquid diet donated by Nasa, designed to keep them from vomiting as the capsule rotates 10 to 12 times through curves in the 28-inch-diameter escape hole.

A video camera in the escape capsule would watch for panic attacks. The miners will wear oxygen masks and have two-way voice communication.

Their pulse, skin temperature and respiration rate will be constantly measured through a biomonitor around their abdomens. To prevent blood clotting from the quick ascent, they took aspirin and will wear compression socks.

The miners will also wear sweaters because they will experience a shift in climate from about 90 degrees underground to near freezing on the surface after nightfall. Those coming out during daylight hours will wear sunglasses.

Florencio Avalos

There was a happy symmetry about the decision to give 31-year-old Florencio Avalos the honour of being the first miner to ascend to the surface.

When "Los 33" were first located by rescuers, 17 days after the rock fall that blocked them inside the San José Mine, Avalos was the first of the men to be photographed, grinning in the darkness.

A professional driver, whose brother Renan has also been trapped underground, he has been spending at least some of the two months of his captivity making films of his colleagues, to send to their families at the surface.

Caution

A mine safety expert praised Chile for a remarkable job of preparing to rescue the 33 trapped miners, but warned many risks remained, simply because never before had anyone tried to rescue miners from such depths.

Davitt McAteer, who led the US Mine Safety and Health Administration during President Bill Clinton's administration, said a miner could get claustrophobia and do something that damages the capsule; a rock could fall and wedge it in the shaft; the cable could get hung up; or the rig that pulls the cable could overheat.

"It's not an elevator shaft. It's got twists and turn and that can cause problems with the cable," Mr McAteer said. "We're talking about 2,000 feet and it's uncharted territory."

Mr McAteer said he gave "very high marks" to the Chilean rescue team for creating lowered expectations by saying that it might take until Christmas to rescue the men - and then consistently delivering rescue preparations ahead of time.

"Second, they have had very few technical problems. Their drilling rigs have performed extremely well," he said.

And finally, "They've been lucky. You can be good and you can be lucky. And they've been good and lucky."

But these operations could "turn on a dime", added Mr McAteer, who is currently vice president of Wheeling Jesuit University and leading the Upper Big Branch mine-disaster investigation in West Virginia.

"Knock on wood that this luck holds out for the next 33 hours."

From crisis to hope

7 August "We want to be realistic, the chance to provide a quick solution is extremely low."

Alexander Bohn, general manager of the mine

12 August "The hope of finding them alive still exists. If things go well and God helps us, this weekend we can contact them. Our rescuers have covered more than two-thirds of the path to reach these compatriots."

Sebastián Piñera, Chilean President

22 August "All 33 of us are well inside the shelter."

Note from the miners attached to a probe and brought to the surface, 17 days after the mine collapsed

24 August "Psychologically, we have to try to keep them on the right track... They understand that we have to go through 700 metres of solid rock to rescue them."

Laurence Golborne, Chile's mining minister

27 August "We have organised everything very well down here."

Mario Sepúlveda, one of the trapped miners

19 September "Today for the first time we have three machines working simultaneously. We don't know when they will reach them. But we know one thing – with the help of God, they will reach them."

Mr Piñera

9 October "There have been hard moments, beautiful moments, sad moments, moments filled with happiness, nights where we were cold here... But we just kept going, trusting in God that this would all work out. Right now all I feel is happiness; it's like a calm has come over us."

Juan Sánchez, father of trapped miner Jimmy, after the drill reached the miners

12 October "Here the tension is higher than down below. Down there they are calm."

Veronica Ticona, sister of miner Ariel

12 October "There were days when we lost all hope, but I don't want that to take away from the joy we're feeling now... I want you to tell the world that what's happened here was a miracle."

Maria Herrera, sister of miner Daniel

Wikipedia: 2010 Copiapó mining accident