Australia celebrates rescue of trapped miners
Punching the air and hugging their families, two Australian miners who spent two weeks trapped in a kennel-sized cage nearly 3,000 feet underground walked out of Beaconsfield Gold Mine before dawn today after a marathon effort to free them.
Hundreds of well-wishers gathered at the mine gates erupted in cheers when Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34, emerged, their head torches glowing in the pre-dawn light.
The miners bear-hugged family and friends before clambering into two ambulances, still laughing and joking. Before going, they removed their identity tags from the wall outside the elevator, a standard safety measure carried out by all miners when they finish a shift.
Despite their underground ordeal spanning more than 300 hours, doctors who examined the men in the mine and a nearby hospital said they were in good physical shape.
Russell discharged himself late morning from Launceston General Hospital while Webb stuck around to enjoy a plate of steak and chips, hospital spokesman Geoff Lyons said, adding that the miners were “as fine as you could be after being locked underground in a metre square for a fortnight”.
The pair handed out small cards to family and friends printed with a name for their rescue: “The Great Escape.”
“To all who have helped and supported us and our families, we cannot wait to shake your hand and shout (buy) you a Sustagen,” the card said, referring to a nutrition drink the pair sipped while underground. “Thanks is not enough.”
The families said neither they nor the miners planned to speak to the media today about their ordeal.
Their rescue ended a drama that riveted the nation. Television networks cut live to the news that the men were saved.
A fire engine drove with its siren wailing through Beaconsfield, a town in the southern state of Tasmania. A church bell not used since the end of World War II rang out in celebration.
Prime Minister John Howard hailed the men’s rescue as “a wonderful demonstration of Australian mateship”.
“And to those two men, I just want to say to them we are, all of us, 20 million of us, delighted to still have them with us, as I know their families are,” he added.
Webb and Russell were buried after a small earthquake on April 25 trapped the safety cage in which they were working under tonnes of rock.
Miner Larry Knight, 44, was killed, and today’s rescue came hours before Knight’s family planned to hold his funeral. Mine manager Matthew Gill said the two survivors had expressed a desire to attend the funeral.
Working around the clock in shifts, specialist miners bored through more than 13 metres of rock over the past week with a giant drilling machine to reach the men. Cutting the final sections of the tunnel was slow and difficult, as the men used hand tools to avoid causing a cave-in.
All the time, the two miners had huddled in the 1.2-metre-tall cage.
Rescuer Glen Burns said miners finally broke through using chisels to open up a crack wide enough to see through.
“And we just made eye contact, that was first, and then made that bit bigger and then shook their hands,” he said.
Starting at 4.47am, the men crept one at a time out the cage and into the narrow escape tunnel.
Rescuers carried them through the tunnel on stretchers and after a quick medical check and shower the men were able to walk out of the mine’s lift and walk over to waiting ambulances.
Gill paid tribute to the teams of rescue workers, paramedics and specialist hard rock miners.
“Working extraordinary hours in difficult conditions they have done this while riding an emotional rollercoaster,” he said.
The two ambulances drove Webb and Russell, both sporting beards, slowly out of the mine, with the doors open so crowds could see the two men, who have become national heroes.
Hundreds of townsfolk lined the streets, whooping, clapping and cheering as the vehicles passed en route to a hospital in nearby Launceston.
After the miners left Beaconsfield, hundreds of people packed the local pub to celebrate.
Seventeen men were working the night shift when the magnitude-2.1 quake sent tremors through the century-old mine. Fourteen made it safely to the surface. But Webb, Russell and Knight had been working deep in the belly of the mine repairing a tunnel.
Webb and Russell were saved by a huge slab of rock that landed on their safety cage, forming a roof that kept them from being crushed. For five days they lived on a single cereal bar and water they licked from rocks, until rescue crews with thermal heat sensors detected them on April 30.
The rescue team forced a narrow pipe through a hole drilled through the rock and pushed through supplies including water, vitamins and fresh clothing. In recent days they even got iPods, an inflatable mattress, egg and chicken sandwiches and ice pops.
Throughout the rescue, the good spirits of the miners, both married with three children, amazed those struggling to reach them.
One man asked for a newspaper so he could start scanning the classifieds for another job. Another said that once freed he wanted the ambulance to stop at McDonald’s on the way to the hospital.
