World captivated by Chile mine rescue

14 Oct 2010, 1:02 am   -   Source: AAP
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World captivated by Chile mine rescue

As the Chilean miners dramatically emerged from 69 days of underground imprisonment, their joyous escape was aired non-stop on television stations around the globe.

Many broadcasters cleared their schedules to show rolling live coverage of the missile-shaped rescue capsule being painstakingly hoisted up to the surface in the Atacama desert in a rescue operation which has captivated the world.

The BBC streamed live pictures above a scrolling bar of information emerging from the crowd of relatives and Chilean politicians waiting to receive the miners-turned-national heroes.

Other outlets including Al-Jazeera, CNN International, Britain's Sky News, France's iTele and BFM and Europe-wide channel Euronews live-streamed the drama as it unfolded in real time, through the Chilean night and into the day.

People logged on and tuned in to read, watch and listen as Florencio Avalos, the first miner to reach the surface, was extracted safe and sound at 0311 GMT (1411 AEDT).

As well as cameras trained on the surface, viewers saw grainy pictures of the miners still awaiting rescue 600 metres below ground.

Newspapers and websites feasted on a genuine good-news story. Britain's Daily Mirror tabloid headlined the coverage of the rescue "A Miner Miracle" while German newspaper Bild's website said Chile was "in an ecstasy of joy".

The New York Times and The Washington Post had front-page photographs of the first miners rescued.

People an ocean away from the rescue were keen to celebrate the miners' release.

"It was supposed to be a day off for me, and I was planning to catch up on my reading," Tetsuro Umeji, a high school English teacher in Kudamatsu City, Japan, said in a comment shown on the BBC live feed.

"But now my eyes are glued to the computer screen as the rescue is broadcast live. Absolutely amazing! Congratulations, Chile! I will keep my fingers crossed until the last of the 33 miners is brought to the surface!"

At the minesite itself, the interest appeared to overwhelm authorities managing the 2,000 journalists present. They ran out of international media badges and began issuing hand-labelled IDs to reporters arriving from as far afield as China and Turkey.

The huge coverage of the event also had its darker side, when hordes of journalists fought each other to be the first to interview Florencio Avalos.

The media scrum trampled the Avalos family tent erected during the long wait, causing the miner's wife Maria to hit out at journalists close to her with a Chilean flag bunched in her hand.

The workers' families had all but given up hope of seeing their loved ones again when on August 22 -- 17 days after the collapse at the San Jose mine -- a note tied to a drill probe announced their sensational survival to the world.

A video camera winched down to the miners early in their ordeal allowed them to talk to their loved ones -- and created mini-celebrities long before they reached the surface.

Millions, struggling to comprehend the nightmarish existence of the trapped men and the anguish of their families, have followed the rescue efforts.

In a measure of how the epic survival tale has ballooned into a global human interest story, live images from the site were broadcast to viewers as far afield as New York and Sydney, London and Tokyo.

On Japan's major television networks, doctors discussed various medical complications the men could suffer, while Australian news stations, websites and radio gave it non-stop coverage.

In Poland, which has seen its share of mine disasters, two 24-hour news channels had live rolling coverage of the dramatic rescue efforts.

In the Spanish-speaking world, the rescue dominated news stations and websites.

Spanish-language station Univision in the United States ran live video of the site, while Chile's La Tercera newspaper website carried a graphic header with empty boxes to be filled in as each miner emerged safe, and two counters tallying "rescued miners" and "miners in hospital".

Throughout Asia, in Singapore, South Korea, Thailand or Vietnam, citizens were greeted with the news that the first miners were out and China's CCTV streamed the first two rescues live.

China's Xinhua news agency and state television reported from the ground, and popular news portals Sohu and Sina set up special sections on their front pages featuring details on the rescue effort.

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