They are the little big guys who pulled off the unprecedented Chilean mine rescue. We got to know them over the last few weeks as Plan B forged ahead and eventually freed the 33 men trapped underground at San José mine, Chile.

When the miners were discovered alive on August 22, initial estimates of the rescue operation were a minimum of six months. Nobody had been trapped at such a depth before.

But Brandon Fisher, who runs a specialist drilling firm called Center Rock Inc., in Berlin, Pennsylvania, was convinced he could do the job quicker. Fisher had been involved in the rescue at Quecreek, Pennsylvania, in July 2002, in which nine miners had been saved after having been trapped for over 78 hours. But despite his experience, Fisher couldn't get anyone to listen to him.

The NOVA film crew interviews driller Greg Hall during the height of the crisis.


Enter stage left the hulking figure of Greg Hall, who runs his own small firm, Drillers Supply International, in Cypress, Texas. Hall has a long-standing connection with Chile ("it's my second home"), speaks impeccable Spanish, and runs his South American operations out of Antofagasta, about 300 miles north of the San José mine.

Hall's general manager there, Mijali Proestakis, and Proestakis's nephew Igor, had been involved in the early stages of the rescue operation, and Hall quickly persuaded the Chilean government to listen to Fisher's pitch.

It was a bold plan: to sacrifice one of the narrow supply lines being used to keep the miners alive, supplying them with food, water, air, and, later, communications and electricity.

The real struggle for the miners who initially managed to stay alive for 17 days sharing a few tins of tuna and each rationed to a couple of spoonfuls of water per day begins now as they return to normal life.

With the men restored to their families, friends, or lovers, the engineers of the rescue team have now handed primary responsibility for the miners over to the medics, who have been involved from the day the 33 men were found alive on August 22nd.

All the miners have now left hospital. Many were smuggled past the waiting press pack outside Copiapo Hospital yesterday disguised as workmen to avoid the stress of over-exposure.

One of the last men to be discharged was Mario Sepúlveda, or "Super Mario" as he was christened by the press, the joker in the pack, the ever-voluble compere to the underground reality show.

In the end, they made it all look so easy.

After the nervous final moments of preparation, the delay caused by the last-minute trial runs of the rescue capsule Phoenix 2, we at the camp and a billion viewers across the world breathed a sigh of relief with the emergence of the first miner from his subterranean prison.

In different time zones across the world, people were waking up to the news that the rescue had started, or going to bed relieved that it had all begun successfully. Back in London, my cousin John couldn't sleep and came back down to switch on the TV. He stayed up the rest of the night, captivated, like millions of others, by the extraordinary images.

Extraordinary. Remarkable. Unprecedented. All words that are going to get over-used in the next few days.

But how else can you describe the Chilean rescue operation? Nobody has ever been trapped so deep for so long before. And everything was captured on camera.

NOVA's "Emergency Mine Rescue" will air on PBS on October 26, 2010. Here, the NOVA film crew, with Nick Evans at far left, outside their "hotel" at the San Jose mine. Posing with them, in the pink shirt, is Carola, wife of miner Raúl Bustos. 

Final preparations last night for the rescue at the San José mine took a few hours longer than expected, which put everyone on edge.

The rescue team made two trial runs with the rocket-shaped capsule Fenix 2 (Phoenix 2), first to check the communications and then with a rescuer inside the cramped space, winching it down to within about 30 feet of the miners' refuge.


It was 11:19 p.m. local time (10:19 EST) when rescuer Manuel González finally stepped into the capsule to be winched down a narrow tube into the depths of San José mine.

Along with the rest of the world, I watched the remarkable footage when, 17 minutes later, González reached the 33 men below -- the hugs, backslaps, and laughter among men who all along have shown an incredible fortitude.

It looked like nobody wanted to be the first to leave what has become a special community locked away from the world but under its constant gaze.

Editor's Note: A NOVA film crew has been on-site at the San José mine in Chile since September 5, exactly one month after the collapse that trapped 33 miners. (NOVA's film, "Emergency Mine Rescue," will air on PBS within weeks -- watch here for updates on exact airdate.) Producer Nick Evans will blog here from Chile every day until the miners are freed.

The Plan B drill team celebrates after breaking through to the miners' workshop on Saturday, October 9.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

The mood in Campamento Esperanza is feverish, at least among the media who count down the hours to rescue, expected to begin at 8 p.m. local time tonight (7 p.m. EST).

The families, meanwhile, have retreated into their private thoughts. Some pray, others clutch some small object of sentimental value that reminds them of their husband, father, brother, or son.

Or they re-read worn, tear-stained letters from their loved ones below, letters whose words they already know by heart.

Or rehearse speeches that will never get beyond the first few words, as pure emotion inevitably takes over.

The Chilean President will fly in by helicopter this afternoon, and tomorrow we await the arrival of Evo Morales, the left-wing President of Bolivia, who wants to greet Carlos Mamani, the only non-Chilean miner trapped below.

The media village, bristling with satellite dishes and Winnebagos, continues to spread down the hill away from the mine head. Journalists will jostle for position on the platform from which we will be able to record the rescue.

Meanwhile, the families wait, pray, hope, and, if all goes as expected, finally, finally, celebrate.