Twenty-nine of the 33 miners who have been trapped in a Chilean mine for more than two months have been rescued since the operation to bring them to the surface began late Tuesday night.
As the rescue operation proceeded smoothly, the time required to bring each miner up from the tunnel where they have been trapped more than 600 metres underground took just 25 minutes.
Juan Aguilar, the 29th miner brought up from the San Jose copper and gold mine, emerged Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. ET.
He followed Richard Villarroel, who is returning to his pregnant wife.
Franklin Lobos was the 27th miner brought to the surface. A 53-year-old retired professional soccer player, Lobos kicked a soccer ball given to him after he emerged from the 190-by-54-centimetre metal capsule that is bringing the men to the surface.
Jose Henriquez, a 55-year-old father of two was the 24th man to be pulled out of the mine. A religious man, he had led prayer groups in the mine and had friends send 33 bibles down the rescue shaft.
Four miners remained underground as of early Wednesday evening, along with some rescue workers sent down to provide assistance. A rescuer, left, helps Victor Segovia Rojas after he's brought to the surface at the San Jose gold and copper mine, near Copiapo, Chile, on Wednesday. (Hugo Infante/Government of Chile/Associated Press)
Yonni Barios, 50, was the 21st miner rescued. He had taken a nursing course previously and was known as the doctor down below because he helped so many fellow miners with their health problems. Over the course of the roughly 70 days the men spent trapped in the mine, Barios took temperatures, administered medications and treated minor skin infections.
Barios hugged his mistress after emerging from the capsule. His wife told a Chilean newspaper she would not be at the mine to greet her husband, because she had reportedly found out about his mistress.
Mario Sepulveda Espina, the second miner to reach the surface, told a Chilean television station the ordeal was the hardest thing he has ever faced in his life, but his faith in God got him through it.
"I was with God, and I was with the devil," he said through a translator. "But God won, I held onto God's hand, the best hand, and at no point in time … did I doubt that God wouldn't get me out of there."
The first rescue began at 10:55 p.m. ET Tuesday, when Florencio Avalos, 31, was raised through a rescue shaft while strapped inside the metal capsule, dubbed Phoenix 1.
After weeks of waiting and preparation, it took just 16 minutes to lift him out of the mine.
Miner Osman Araya reunites with his wife Wednesday after becoming the sixth trapped miner to reach the surface of the San Jose mine. (Hugo Infante/Government of Chile/Reuters)
"His seven-year-old son and his wife were waiting beside the rescue capsule," Connie Watson of CBC News said from Chile.
"Before it got there, the son was just sobbing and sobbing, and that had almost everyone else feeling the same."
Avalos, who often acted as a cameraman after officials sent cameras down a tunnel, greeted his family and hugged his rescuers and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera before being escorted into a medical triage centre set up on site.
"He looked in really good shape," Watson said early Wednesday morning. "It was the start of what's been a very successful process."
The tightly choreographed rescue operation has proceeded without any major issues, but officials were still monitoring the situation closely as the miners were lifted out one by one.
Potential panic and stress attacks among the miners are the rescuers' main concerns, but there are also fears that falling rocks could wedge the escape capsule in the rescue shaft, jeopardizing the operation.
Longest underground survival
The miners, who were trapped underground on Aug. 5, are being winched more than 600 metres to the surface through a narrow shaft, which took weeks to drill.
Rescued from mine:
Florencio Avalos.
Mario Sepulveda Espina.
Juan Illanes.
Carlos Mamani.
Jimmy Sanchez.
Osman Araya.
Jose Ojeda.
Claudio Yanez.
Mario Gomez.
Alex Vega.
Jorge Galleguillos.
Edison Pena.
Carlos Barrios.
Victor Zamora.
Victor Segovia.
Daniel Herrera.
Omar Reygadas.
Esteban Rojas.
Pablo Rojas.
Dario Segovia.
Yonni Barios.
Samuel Avalos.
Carlos Bugueno.
Jose Henriquez.
Renan Avalos.
Claudio Acuna.
Franklin Lobos.
Richard Villarroel
Juan Aguilar
They have survived more time trapped underground than anyone on record, and the world has been captivated by their endurance and unity as officials carefully planned their rescue.
Before the rescue operation began, crews ran tests by lowering an empty capsule down the shaft and raising it before sending it back down with a rescue worker inside to help prepare the miners for their trip to the surface.
Carlos Barrios, the 13th man rescued, was a part-time miner and part-time taxi driver.
Barrios, 27, didn't want to go to work on the day of the collapse because he had a premonition of the disaster, with dreams of rocks falling, according to family members.
Claudio Yanez, a 34-year-old drill operator whose wife proposed while he was stuck underground, was lifted out Wednesday morning, the eighth man to reach the surface.
Mario Gomez, the ninth man to step into the sun after months in the dark, fell to his knees to pray after he stepped out of the capsule.
Gomez, 63, was the oldest man trapped underground. He has worked as a miner since he was 12 years old and was considering retirement in November.
Edison Pena gestures as he is carried on a stretcher after being rescued Wednesday. (Hugo Infante/Government of Chile/Associated Press)
The capsule was expected to move at a speed of 0.7 metres per second but can be pulled as fast as three metres per second if needed. Two additional capsules were built to serve as backup if necessary.
The fittest, more stable and experienced miners were the first to be hauled out of the mine because they were best prepared to handle any initial glitches during the rescue, officials said.
The next men winched out of the mine were those who were weak, ill or dealing with psychological issues, officials said.
Doctors had been worried the miners could suffer nausea and heart palpitations during the trip up and were concerned about the risk of blood clotting and heart attacks. Aspirin had been sent down to the men earlier Tuesday to thin their blood.
"The spinning they were worried about — where the men would get nauseous and have heart palpitations — that doesn't seem to have happened," Watson said.
Miners monitored during ascent
The miners are being closely monitored from the moment they step in the capsule. They had been given a high-protein liquid diet donated by NASA, designed to keep them from vomiting as the capsule rotates.
A video camera in the capsule is used to monitor for panic attacks. The miner uses an oxygen mask and has two-way voice communication.
The men also wear sweaters because of the shift in climate from about 30 C underground to near freezing on the surface after nightfall.
After medical checks and visits with family members selected by the miners, the men will be flown to hospital in Copiapo, a 10-minute ride away. Two hospital floors were prepared for giving the miners physical and psychological exams, and the men will be kept under observation in a ward as dark as a movie theatre.
The last miner scheduled to leave the mine is shift foreman Luis Urzua, whose leadership was credited for helping the men endure the initial 17 days after the collapse, during which they had no outside contact. The men made 48 hours worth of rations last before rescuers reached them with a narrow borehole to send down more food.
This is out dated as all of them have been pulled out as of now.