Drill breaks through for Chile’s trapped miners

Sometimes things do work.


Associated Press     
SAN JOSE MINE, CHILE—Sixty-six agonizing days after their gold and copper mine collapsed above them, 33 miners were offered a way out Saturday as a drill broke through to their underground purgatory.

Word of the drill's success prompted cheers, tears and the ringing of bells by families in the tent camp outside the mine. Some who have kept a vigil since the Aug. 5 disaster ran up a hill where 33 Chilean flags were planted, chanting and shouting with joy as a siren rang throughout "Camp Hope," confirming the breakthrough.

"Our nervousness is gone now," said Juan Sanchez, whose son Jimmy is stuck in the mine. "Only now can we begin to smile."

The "Plan B" drill won a three-way race against two other drills to carve a hole wide enough for an escape capsule to pull the miners out one by one