Straight-talking engineer was behind Chile rescue

[rabs]

Source: The Associated Press (via Yahoo News)

By VIVIAN SEQUERA, Associated Press Writer Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer – Fri Oct 15, 7:25 pm ET

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – Three days after 33 men were sealed deep within a gold mine, Andre Sougarret was summoned by Chile's president.

The Chilean leader got right to the point: The square-jawed, straight-talking engineer would be in charge of digging them out.

At first Sougarret worried — no one knew if the miners were alive, and the pressure was on to reach them. And he knew he would be blamed if the men were found dead "because we didn't reach them or the work was too slow."

But eventually, contact was made, the work was on, and the miners below were calling him "boss."





Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lt_chile_mine_collapse

---

There were some jingoistic posters on threads while the rescue was under way who huffed and puffed that "without U.S. intervention the rescue could not have been carried out."

How clueless they were. It was a CHILEAN operation, as the article says.

NASA dudes showed up, as if Chileans needed a Ph.D. to show them how to weld a thick, wire-mesh rescue cage. The Chilean navy (submarine command) was already designing and contructing the escape capsule, BEFORE the NASA guys showed up.

Chile has a long tradition of mining and drilling. Outside experts were welcomed and their advice listened to and "thank you very much" and then the Chileans did it their way.

Chile has world-class universities that churn out nutritional scientists, so the NASA dudes were not needed to tell them what food, medicines and supplies to send to the trapped miners.

The article by the AP says that Sougarret was totally in control, notany U.S. "expert."

As for the famous sunglasses, it was a U.S. company reaching out to the hundreds of millions of people around the world who would be watching. Cheap advertising around the globe.

Days after the 8.8 mega-quake in February, Hillary showed up in Santiago with U.S. "aid". She gave then-President Michelle Bachelet 18 cell phones! Freaking cell phones, while thousands of Chileans were dead, injured, homeless.

Leftist Chileans over the age of 50, and their sons and daughters, have not forgotten the Nixon/Kissinger/CIA involvement in the overthrow of Salvador Allende in 1973 and the resulting murderous Pinochet regime.

There is a saying in Chile, "Que se crean estos gringos?" (Who the hell do these gringos think they are.")

It applied here.

[Xipe Totec]

1. Que me pelen el Chile los gringos. nt

[rabs]

2. Asi es ...

... se creen el ombligo del mundo.

No solo en Chile y Mexico pero en todo el mundo.

[whistler162]

3. Yup no US help at all.....

http://theweek.com/article/index/208186/7-us-firms-that-helped-save-the-chilean-miners

But don't let facts get in the way of your hate fest!

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. The On Site commander was Chilean

Even if there was US help.

Pointing that out gets people riled up.

[Tx4obama]

9. Even if? There is no 'if' about it . There was a lot of US help ;)

And the only thing riling anyone up right now is the commentary in the OP that is trying to say that Chile did it all on their own without the help of the USA.

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. I read the article and ignored the comment

Chile accepted help and the on site co was Chilean.

[Tx4obama]

10. You forgot to add the 'sarcasim' thingie to your comment ;) n/t

[Cirque du So-What]

21. There's more hate contained in your simplistic one-liner

than in the entire OP. But don't let that get in the way of your hoo-rah jingoism fest.

[whistler162]

23. Don't research much do you......

facts are rough and if that is hoo-rah then HOO-RAH.

US firms did assist and unlike the rampant dismissal of the OP where of value.

Those 18, actual 25, cell phones SoS Clinton brought with her and she gave one of them to the Chilean President where part of a request by the President of Chile. Sorry Sos Clinton couldn't fit the field hospital in her purse!

[Cirque du So-What]

31. A modicum of research on your part would show they were SATELLITE PHONES - not CELL PHONES

Please don't let me get in the way of your snarky, chauvinistic narrative, however.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. That saying ain't limited to Chile

Just saying...

[Tx4obama]

5. Americans DO deserve some of the credit. See below

Dear rabs, your comment in your OP left out some very pertinent information/facts.


Driller From Denver Becomes Chile Mine Rescue Hero

Jeff Hart was drilling water wells for the U.S. Army's forward operating bases in Afghanistan when he got the call to fly to Chile.

SNIP

Within hours after the gold and copper mine collapsed Aug. 5, Chile's government realized the mine's owners were ill-equipped to handle the rescue and asked the state-owned Codelco mining company to take the lead.

Codelco turned to Geotec Boyles Bros., a U.S.-Chilean company, to handle the "Plan B" escape shaft, one of three simultaneous drilling efforts that raced to reach the miners.

Geotec operations manager James Stefanic said he quickly assembled "a top of the line team" of drillers who are intimately familiar with the key equipment, including engineers from two Pennsylvania companies — Schramm Inc., which makes the T130 drill, and Center Rock Inc., which makes the drill bits.

Hart was called in from Afghanistan, "simply because he's the best" at drilling larger holes with the T130's wide-diameter drill bits, Stefanic said.

SNIP
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=11841660

Also, the large drill bit (the WIDE one) that was essential in making the escape hole is manufactured here in the USA and it was sent to Chile, without that drill bit it would have been pretty darn hard for the miners to have come up to the surface.

Also, the Chile rescue capsule was a redesign of the Pennsylvania USA Quecreek Mine Rescue Capsule.
The Chile rescue was not the first time a rescue capsule has been used.

Also, you said: "Chile has world-class universities that churn out nutritional scientists, so the NASA dudes were not needed to tell them what food, medicines and supplies to send to the trapped miners." --- Then why did they use the liquid nutrient drinks that NASA invented and not their own for the final hours of the rescue?

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. So do Canadians, South Africans

It was an international operation with chilean command and control

[rabs]

12. The point is that there were people who said it would not have been possibe without U.S. aid

Of course they used equipment from the United States. What country does not have it?

The first drill rig was made in Australia. But are the Australians bragging?

The cable used to pull out the miners was imported from Germany. Are the Germans bragging?

I did not see a single U.S. "expert" at the scene of the rescue. I did not see President Pinera single out the United States for its aid.

Ms. Rabs, a Chilean, says if the U.S. contributed to saving the lives of the miners, then that is fine. But the United States contributes more to destroying lives, as in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the United States did it in Chile in 1973.

[Tx4obama]

13. President Obama sent well wishes. Americans were not 'bragging'.

As far as no U.S. experts being at the scene of the rescue, they were there but were staying out of the spotlight in order for everyone to focus on the miners and the miners' families - it was reported on the news here in the USA.

Btw, you should go ahead and call your president and tell him to send our NASA team home. Apparently according to you Chile doesn't need them to stay and help with 'the future assistance' to the miners President Pinera asked the team to stay there for.

Goodnight to you, I no longer wish to stay on this 'negative' thread. Ciao.

[rabs]

16. Buenas noches

My president happens to be Obama.

All of the miners have been released and are home eating empanadas with vino tinto, so doubt NASA "future assistance" is needed at this stage."

Btw, if you travel to South America, be prudent with the word "American." You will offend people down there. The United States does not have a monopoly on the word, because they also are "Americans."

"Negative thread," not really, just a Chilean viewpoint from one who lived there.

Sleep well, no hard feelings on my part.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. NASA is staying for the post psych phase

They and a few sub services, not just Chile's are involved in that post phase.

[boppers]

24. "All of the miners have been released and are home"

Uh, no.

Two are still in hospital.

Lots have been released, but are still under outpatient care, for decompression reasons (that much time in that kind of an environment fucks up a mind, and a body).

[boppers]

14. Jeff Hart was there, a US drilling expert, who ran the rig that got to them.

That being said: "people who said it would not have been possibe without U.S. aid" are just as guilty of inaccuracy as those who would portray this solely as a Chilean effort.

edit: typo

[4lbs]

15. So, the fact that the entire operation was first performed in the US in 2002, by Americans, to save

American miners doesn't matter?

It doesn't matter that the Chileans had the blueprint of what America did in 2002, to follow and use as a guide?

They just figured it all out by themselves?

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Actually some of it they did develop

Due to the depth...

No it was not a replica of another rescue. No rescue is the same to another.

[canetoad]

29. Not exactly

The first rescue of this type was carried out in Germany in 1955.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/science/fenix-rocket-ship-to-freedom/article1756376/
The engineers also had a precedent to look at: the “Dahlbusch Bomb,” built in 1955 to rescue three men trapped in the Dahlbusch coal mine in the Rurh region of western Germany. It was used on several other occasions, most famously to pull 11 miners from the flooded Lengede-Broistedt mine in November of 1963, after they had been trapped underground for 14 days.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. The chinese were

And if you bothered to check International coverage everybody highlighted their contribution.

So yes the Germans did brag and you can bet your sweet potatoes that the company is using this in marketing literature.

It is called human nature.

[canetoad]

28. Here ya go rabs

Apart from the Strata 950 which was the plan A drill,

AN Australian drilling consultant helping to reach 33 trapped miners in Chile says ecstatic rescuers hugged and cried when the men sent up notes saying they were alive.

Kelvin Brown, of Perth, flew to Chile last week to help direct precision drilling to a refuge chamber nearly 700 metres down at the San Jose mine in northern Chile.
http://www.perthnow.com.au/business/news/perth-driller-helps-chile-mine-rescue/story-e6frg2qu-1225909497019

Aussie rescue specialists laud the Chilean mine rescue

15/10/2010 -
An Australian company involved in providing advice in the Chilean mine disaster has lauded the successful rescue of 33 miners trapped underground.

The Chilean government contacted Coal Services Pty Ltd, through its subsidiary Mines Rescue Pty Ltd, in August for help in saving the miners from a chamber 700m beneath the surface.
http://www.industrysearch.com.au/News/Aussie-rescue-specialists-laud-the-Chilean-mine-rescue-47343/

[boppers]

6. Ugly jingoism goes many ways, it seems.

...As does racism.

It's very sad that the whole world united around this cause, but some folks want to use it for flag waving. The flags may change.... but it's still jingoistic flag waving.

Oh, and FWIW, it was Eberhard Au who invented the drill rescue capsule, back in 1955, but never patented it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dahlbusch_Bomb

[Tx4obama]

11. Thanks for the link :)

The Chile capsule was similar to the Quecreek Mine's 8½-foot high steel mesh escape capsule too that was used July 28, 2002
They said on the news that the Quecreek Mine rescuers/engineers were in contact with Chile regarding the Chilean capsule.

Here's the Quecreek capsule below (a bit more updated than the 1955 one):

[awoke_in_2003]

25. please do not bring facts...

in to a dick waving contest :)

[valerief]

22. Forget the rescue. Which countries got the guys stuck down the mine? nt

[awoke_in_2003]

26. when it comes to mining...

shit happens, regardless of what country you are from.

[boppers]

27. Chile and Bolivia, IIRC....

Are you assigning blame for the messed up job site without multiple evacuation routes?

I'm guessing the work culture of Chile might be changing *fast*.

[radhika]

30. Compare and contrast: The BP Gulf Spill

The US Coast Guard spends its time shoo-ing reporters and Gulf residents away and generally carrying water for BP. Foreign drilling firms ready to help were not utilized for weeks. And the Obama administration lets BP: conceal the size of the spill; restrict access to the site; use Corexit in defiance of a presidential order; and drag their feet paying claims.

btw: When was the last time any news story mentioned the 11 dead rig workers?

[LTX]

32. Just a reminder --

http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9315597

I haven't see anyone being jingoistic, or bragging, or denigrating the efforts of any of the Chilean rescuers or any of the myriad other rescuers. Your commentary is unwarranted and rather bizarre. The fact is that US drillers and drill bits were needed for this rescue, and credit is due for their efforts.

[Cleita]

33. K&R!

[Judi Lynn]

34. Rabs, people who rush to take offense over any suggestion the US didn't step in like Superman

to save the day in this mining disaster is underinformed on what the US's history in Chile really is. Guilty of active chauvinism on a global scale, a case of good old jingoism.

To take it personally when they are told the country involved was already dealing with the problem, had the plan already in hand, was implementing the plan, knew what to do, was doing it seems to be too hard to bear in some cases.

Time for people to shake off all those years of conditioning, the constant reinforcement that only the whitest, fairest, most alabaster-toned people know what to do about anything, that the rest of the world stands by, hats in hand, waiting for their orders, or skulking around, plotting, cursing under its breath in murderous resentment and jealousy.

The reason more US Americans don't know more history concerning the effects of US machinations in Latin America is because it's something the US has gone to great pains to keep secret, considering its nature. Were it anything to write home about, they would have blabbed it as loudly and as blatantly as bellowing that only one man out of the entire world, who had to be brought in from a country where we are murdering helpless innocents, could sit in that machine and get those lost 33 people out!

Out of the entire world, only one man could do it. Everyone else would have bungled it, and maybe end up pouring tons of hot water down the hole, or silly putty, who knows? It took that one man, and of course he was US American.

I think you and your wife, and your loved ones just may have enough information under your belts after your own life experience to know whereof you speak!

[Tansy_Gold]

35. Ditto. And to add. . . . .

Chile accepted the help offered without sacrificing her pride in the accomplishment. Compare that to the American refusal to accept help during Katrina, or the continuing stonewall on the BP catastrophe.

The focus anyway should not be on who gets credit for what but rather on the rejoicing that 33 lives were saved, the families of the 33 miners are NOT in mourning, and that maybe a new attention will be paid to the health and safety of ALL workers EVERYWHERE.

But some people will use any situation they can to play their petty games of who's number one.



Tansy Gold

[LTX]

39. First,

I don't see anyone "taking offense over any suggestion the U.S. didn't step in like Superman to save the the day in this mining disaster." This, along with the balance of your hyperbole, is just a strawman in service of your ongoing efforts to paint US citizens as universally venal (with the notable exception, of course, of you and a few of your friends). The simple fact is that the US, along with a number of other countries, contributed significantly to the rescue, and it isn't "jingoism" to note that.

Second, Chilean officials were properly considering several plans. There was no single "plan already in hand." The original plan had the miners rescued in December. Everyone involved viewed that as an unacceptable duration. It was in fact a US citizen (Greg Hall) who made workable the plan B ultimately employed by requisitioning needed drill bits available through a US drilling contractor (Brandon Fisher). As stated in the Houston Chronicle:

"The plan, known as "Plan B" because it was the second of three considered by Chilean authorities, was solidified and developed into reality after Hall, the owner of Driller Supply International, a company with a Chilean subsidiary, connected with Brandon Fisher.

Fisher is president of a Pennsylvania company, Center Rock, which owns a powerful hammering drill head that made the plan possible."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/7246077.html

Third, no one is or was "bellowing that only one man out of the entire world ... could sit in that machine and get those lost 33 people out!" This is just more of your personal, misanthropic, fantasy speaking. (And please note that no one was "sitting in a machine" to get the miners out. If you are going to make snide comments about the activites of the rescue participants, the least you could do is inform yourself about the engineering particulars of the rescue operation.)

Finally, I find the need of some posters on this board to actively denigrate any and all acts by US citizens, irrespective of the how decent the act, truly bizarre. What was done here was done out of compassion, and the contributions of Hart and Fisher to the rescue effort should be applauded, not sneered at.

[lunatica]

36. Andre Sougarret, coordinador ejecutivo de milagros

He can add that to his resume.

[Judi Lynn]

37. Andre Sougarret: the brains behind the Chile mine rescue

Andre Sougarret: the brains behind the Chile mine rescue
Features 2010-10-15 10:05

SANTIAGO, Friday 15 October 2010 (AFP) - Andre Sougarret, the unflappable engineer who was the brains behind the picture perfect rescue of 33 miners in northern Chile, did not hide his tears when they emerged from the bottom of a mine thanks to the operation he designed.

By then the grim-faced Sougarret, 46, had become a familiar figure to the press, having appeared before their microphones every day to provide technical information about the search and rescue effort.

~snip~
Sougarret, who is married and has three girls, studied mining engineering at the University of Chile.

He was the manager of mines at the state-owned El Teniente copper mine, the world's largest underground mine, when President Sebastian Pinera picked him to take charge of the exceedingly complex rescue operation at the privately owned San Jose Mine.

More:
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/46512

[CHIMO]

38. Chile’s CEO moment

On the morning of Aug. 6, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera spoke to his Mining Minister, Laurence Golborne.

Twenty-four hours before, a small gold and copper mine had collapsed in northern Chile, sending a geyser of dust into the air and plunging the families of 33 men into despair. Accidents are not uncommon in a country with a mining tradition that extends back to the Spanish conquistadors and a blemished safety record nearly as long.

Yet this tragedy struck a chord with Mr. Pinera, who took power in March just two weeks after a devastating earthquake struck the country. He immediately dispatched Mr. Golborne to the mine.

His instructions: Fix this. Spare no expense. Baldo Procurica, a Chilean senator who was present, recalls the leader saying that there was “no limit to the resources” to be spent on the effort.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/americas/chiles-ceo-moment/article1759796/