Congratulations to Chile for the rescue of the 33 miners who had been trapped for 69 days. The survival of the men is a testament to human resilience, ingenuity and the ability to put aside petty differences for the greater good — both for the band of men in what very easily could have been their crypt and to those on the surface who pitched in to help.
The miners’ saga was a feel-good story that luckily had a very happy ending, the kind of story that people everywhere yearn for. This was amply demonstrated by the hundreds of journalists who descended on a remote stretch of Chilean desert to cover the rescue efforts — not just from South and North America, but Europe, Russia, Southeast Asia and even North Korea. An estimated 1 billion people watched the retrieval process this week. The real-time Web Monitor has said Internet traffic alone grew to more than 4 million views per minute on Tuesday.
This is a story that is still unfolding and in the days and months to come, we will certainly hear a lot more details of what the men went through, both good and bad.
However, politicians and corporations, both in Chile and elsewhere, can learn valuable lessons on the teamwork needed to handle disasters, while scientists and researchers will undoubtedly extrapolate from the minutiae of the men’s daily lives information that could prove beneficial to many others.
While much has been made of the men’s fortitude and shift leader Luis Alberto Urzua’s ability to hold his team together, it really was the willingness of Santiago to seek assistance — and the countries and companies that answered — that led to the happy ending. All too often after earthquakes, hurricanes and naval disasters we have seen governments refuse offers of help until it is much too late, out of a misplaced sense of national pride or official ineptitude.
The Chilean government moved quickly to take over the rescue effort when the San Jose Mine’s private owners — who had an abysmal safety record to begin with — were quick to prove their ineptness. Within hours of the collapse, state-owned Codelco stepped in to run the rescue operations. Santiago was not embarrassed to seek outside expert advice.
Taipei-based Planet Technology Corp produces the infrared Internet cameras and media converters that were lowered through boreholes into the cavern so the miners could communicate with the outside world. US space agency NASA provided information on diet and the psychological aspects of prolonged isolation. Australian mining companies provided information on mine rescues. The US--Chilean firm Geotec Boyles Brothers was assigned one of three escape shaft efforts — theirs was the one that worked — and it pulled in experts from Pennsylvania, as well as contractor Jeff Hart, who was drilling water wells in Afghanistan for the US Army, because he was considered the best at digging big holes with the T130 drill. Chinese-made parts were used for the crane that helped move the escape pod, while German firms provided some of the cable. The list goes on — right down to the now infamous footage of Oakley glare-resistant sunglasses the miners wore as they emerged from the earth to protect their eyes.
Since this sort of rescue had never been attempted, no one knew which plan, what equipment or which combination of efforts would work. The spirit of persistent teamwork was exemplified by the fact that it was originally thought it might be another two months before the rescue shafts would reach the men.
Unfortunately, there will inevitably be plenty of natural and national disasters worldwide in the years to come, and many, if not most, will not have the same fairy-tale ending. However, the miners, Chile’s public and its government — and all their helpers — have shown that the impossible is possible. Congratulations to you all.
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