At Chilean mine, joy and relief as tunnel reaches trapped men
The miners, who had been gathered anxiously for the previous 12 hours at the section of the tunnel where the drill bit entered, celebrated. Ten minutes after the drill reached them, they sent messages topside that no one had been injured.
The slightly angled hole into the San Jose copper and gold mine will now be used to haul out the miners one by one in a specially designed rescue capsule. That operation is expected to begin Wednesday, according to Chile's mining minister, the Associated Press reported Saturday night.
Seconds after the drill reached the miners, a chorus of truck horns echoed through the valley, a long-awaited signal to relatives who had held a 48-hour vigil of hope and anxiety. Hundreds of family members hugged, cried and climbed up the mountain to celebrate. On the slope, surrounded by 33 flags - one for each of the trapped men - relatives cheered and talked of the moment when their loved ones would be free. The men have been stranded since Aug. 5 and were discovered alive Aug. 22.