Trapped Miners in Australia Freed After Two Weeks

Two miners trapped 14 days in a safety cage 3,000 feet underground walked back onto the surface before dawn today to the cheers of hundreds of wellwishers.

Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34, wearing mining helmets with their lamps shining, thrust their arms into the air and then embraced their families before scores of rescuers who had worked around the clock descended on them, hugging and shaking hands.

The two men removed their identity tags from a wall outside the Beaconsfield Gold Mine elevator -- a standard safety measure carried out by all miners when they finish a shift -- and then clambered into separate ambulances, laughing and joking.

“This is the great escape,” said Australian Workers Union national secretary Bill Shorten. “This is the biggest escape from the biggest prison we have, the planet.”

The rescue of Webb and Russell ends a drama that riveted the nation. Television networks cut live to the news that the men were saved. A fire engine drove with its siren wailing through Beaconsfield, a town in the southern state of Tasmania. A church bell not used since the end of World War II pealed in celebration.

The pair were buried after a small earthquake April 25 caused a cave-in that trapped the safety cage they were working in under tons of rock. Miner Larry Knight, 44, was killed, and today’s rescue came hours before Knight’s family planned to hold his funeral. Fourteen miners escaped.

The two miners huddled in the cage, which is about 4 feet tall and as wide as a double bed. They could not stand up, and “if one rolled over the other had to roll over,” said psychologist Bev Bernst, who talked with the miners throughout the rescue operation.

Teams of specialist miners bored through more than 45 feet of rock over the last week with a giant machine. But cutting the final sections of the escape tunnel was slow and difficult, as hand tools were used to avoid causing a cave-in.

Only one worker at a time could dig on his back in the cramped tunnel, wielding pneumatic drills, diamond-tipped chain saws and jackhammers as heavy as 88 pounds.

Starting at 4:47 a.m., the trapped miners crept one at a time out of the cage and into the narrow tunnel. Rescuers carried them through the tube on stretchers. After a medical check underground found them in good health, they stood on the elevator to the surface and walked out of the mine.

They handed out small cards that read: “The Great Escape. To all who have helped and supported us and our families ... thanks is not enough.”

As the ambulances drove slowly out the gates, with the doors open so crowds could see Webb and Russell, hundreds of townsfolk lined the streets, whooping, clapping and cheering as the vehicles passed en route to a hospital.

The pair survived because a huge slab of rock landed on their safety cage, forming a roof that kept them from being crushed by the rest of the debris. For five days they lived on a single cereal bar and water they licked from rocks, until rescue crews with thermal heat sensors detected them April 30.

The rescue team forced a narrow pipe through a hole drilled in the rock and pushed through supplies including water, vitamins and fresh clothing.

Comforts such as iPods, an inflatable mattress, sandwiches and popsicles followed. One of the men asked for a newspaper, saying he wanted to scan the classifieds for another job.