The historic Chilean mine rescue came full circle early on Thursday as the last of the six rescuers who had descended into the San Jose copper mine returned above ground.
Manuel Gonzalez had been the first rescue worker to ride in the Phoenix rescue capsule on Wednesday, a test journey for a pioneering piece of equipment designed and built by the Chilean Navy.
To calm his nerves, the official who closed him in the narrow capsule for the dark journey to 622 metres deep told him: “Imagine you’re at the beach.” Gonzalez was also the last to ascend, about two hours after the last of the 33 trapped miners had been evacuated to safety. He waved to the camera which provided live broadcast from the staging platform for the last 24 hours, climbed into the slightly swinging capsule, and disappeared up the shaft.
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The equipment carried out a historic rescue that had never before been tried at that depth and of so many people.
Gonzalez and the other six men went down to help the miners put on warm clothing -- most were barechested and in shorts in the hot humid depths -- strap on equipment and get mentally set for the claustrophobic journey up the rescue shaft.