Nearly half of 33 Chilean miners brought to light

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Rescued miner Victor Zamora is brought to the surface at the collapsed San Jose mine, 800 km north of the Chilean capital Santiago, on Oct. 13, 2010. 16 of the 33 miners trapped in the collapsed mine have so far been brought to the surface as the final stage of the 69-day rescue operation continues. (Xinhua/Martin Zabala)

Nearly half the 33 trapped Chilean miners have so far been hoisted to safety and the embraces of their families on the surface, ending a 69-day ordeal below the desert in this northern Chile mine.
By noon Wednesday, 16 miners had been pulled out of the San Jose mine at a methodical pace in roughly 11 hours. The 16th rescued miner was Daniel Herrera, who bear-hugged his family warmly.
One by one, the miners emerged and walked out of the missile-shaped capsule, a 54-cm-wide and 4-meter-high steel tube custom-made by the Chilean Navy that carried them to the ground through a 624-meter shaft.
Rejoicing rescuers and relatives broke into cheers and some even tears each time a new miner was brought to light for the first time since the mine collapse on Aug. 5.
Engineers expected all the men would be safely on the surface by early Thursday.
About 10 minutes after midnight local time, Florencio Avalos, 31, was the first to be pulled up to fresh air in the capsule, named Phoenix for the mythical bird that rises from ashes, following a nearly 16-minute journey up the 622-metre rescue shaft to safety.
The man seemingly in good shape was welcomed by his family and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera as well as hundreds of people who gathered at the scene to witness the historic moment.
Avalos's seven-year-old son Bario burst into tears upon seeing his father appear from the rescue tube and ran to him after Avalos came out of the capsule.
The miner then hugged his wife, before medical staff took over and asked him to lay down on a stretcher to be airlifted to a nearby hospital where all the miners will spend 48 hours under medical observation.
His uncle, Alberto Avalos,nfl jerseys, said the rescue operation was "a miracle from God" as no one in history had ever been trapped deep underground for so long and survived.
The miraculous rescue has captivated the world since the miners were found alive 17 days after the collapse. It is the first such operation across the world.
Many news channels around the globe carried live coverage of Wednesday's final rescue.
Dramatic live images showed each miner climbing into the capsule painted in the red-white-and-blue of Chile's flag, then disappearing upward through the dark shaft.
Shortly after the first miner was rescued, President Pinera said at a press conference "this rescue operation has been so marvelous, so clean, so emotional that there was no reason not to allow the eyes of the world, which have been watching this operation so closely, to see it."
San Jose mine would not be opened again until it fulfilled all the safety requirements and that other mines would also be closed and checked, he said.
"If a country wants to be developed it has to protect its workers, because they deserve and need the protection in the past they did not have," Pinera said.
The next three miners lifted out -- Mario Sepulveda, Juan Illanes and Carlos Mamani, the only Bolivian -- were deemed the fittest of body and mind. The 10 to follow involved miners with health problems, such as hypertension, diabetes and skin ulcers.
Bolivian President Evo Morales also arrived at the mine to welcome the Bolivian miner as he was lifted out.
Morales then thanked Pinera and his government for the rescue work.
"I and the Bolivian people will never forget this great effort," Morales said at the news conference, adding that the rescue would create greater confidence between the two countries.
Also among those rescued are 19-year-old Jimmy Sanchez, the youngest miner, and 63-year-old Mario Gomez,Tiffany Jewelry, the oldest.
Gomez was seen breathing from an oxygen mask as he reached the surface. He was helped out of the capsule, and immediately dropped to his knees to pray.
The last miner to be rescued will be 55-year-old shift foreman Luis Urzua, who has been given credit for leading the men through the first 17 days in the hot, humid bowels of the mine without outside contact.
In that period of time, each miner only ate two spoons of canned fish, half a biscuit, and half a cup of milk every 48 hours, relying on supplies found in a rescue chamber.
The miners were found miraculously all alive on Aug. 22, when a narrow bore hole broke through to their shelter. The miners stunned the world with a note attached to the drill reading "The 33 of us in the shelter are well."
Since then food, water and medicine have been lowered to the miners and letters began to pass between the miners and their loved ones. Later, a fiber optic line was established, enabling phone calls and videoconferencing.
On Saturday, the 624-meter deep rescue tunnel was completed, allowing the final phase of the rescue operation to start Wednesday.
It was previously estimated the rescue would take four months, given the instability of the mine and the time needed to drill a new hole,Tiffany Jewelry, about 66 cm in diameter, to extract them.