Chilean miner Raul Bustos celebrates with a hug after being lifted to the surface from the San Jose mine. then deliver through a narrow well. Gifts from the outside world, including an autographed soccer jersey, were also sent underground, but the men still faced an agonizing, months-long excavation until they were freed.
One miner, Edison Peña, then aged 35, remained sane by running several miles underground every day. “When I ran in the dark, I ran for life,” he said at the time. “I wanted to show God that I want to live. I told the mine that I would run until you got tired of me, and I did.”
In total, the men spent 69 days buried in the collapsed mine. before being brought to the surface in an escape pod in October 2010.
«I was with God and with the devil,» said Mario Sepulveda, who spoke as the band's spokesperson. “They fought for me, but God won. I think I've been extremely lucky. I buried 40 years of my life there.
«Now I want to live much longer with my family — son, daughter, wife.»
Thai football players are trapped
Eight years later in the northernmost Thailand's Chiang Rai province, a rescue operation took place that also made world headlines. He also had a wonderful happy ending.
The Thai youth soccer team and their 25-year-old coach were trapped in a network of deep Tham Luang caves after a flash flood blocked the exit while they were visiting. Nine days later, the outlook was bleak and rescuers did not expect to find the children alive.
Soldiers carrying equipment to Tham Luang Nang Non Cave to continue the rescue operation. Photo: Getty
“We expected to find bodies,” wrote British cave diving expert John Volantin. “As we were moving forward in zero visibility, we had no idea if we were going to hit a body. It was a very difficult place.
“I remember seeing several flashes of light as we walked into the cave. When we saw the children approaching us from the slope, my first reaction was complete disbelief.”
When they were found, the boys were “relatively calm,” Volantin said, although the youngest was crying. Video footage from the day they were discovered even shows some of the children smiling faintly.
Their coach, Ekapol Chanthawong, could easily be called a villain for leading a risky excursion so close to the start of Thailand's rainy season. But it was he who calmed the boys by saying only “positive things” to them and teaching them meditation techniques.
“At first [I] tried to regain my composure,” he said then. “I'm used to prayer — I've prayed every night of my life — and so I asked them [to have] a good night and sound sleep. I told the boys that we had to wait a little longer until the water subsided and we could get out.”
Trapped football team members after monsoon rains blocked the entrance to Tham Luang Cave. Photo: Getty
Volanthen was called in to assist in the rescue operation along with two other British cave divers, Robert Harper and Richard Stanton.
For the next three days, the boys and their trainer were sedated and safe maneuvered, one by Thai, British and other international divers, from the maze of the cave network.
All 12 boys and their trainer were successfully rescued, although one Thai fur seal diver died during the mission and a second died. later as a result of a blood poisoning he contracted during the rescue.
Thanks to modern technology and the coordinated efforts of engineers and specialized rescue teams, combined with incredible personal resilience and luck, sometimes seemingly impossible odds can be beaten.
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