Florencio Avalos is all smiles and looking good.
Florencio Avalos, the first of 33 miners trapped for 69 days in a collapsed mine a half-mile underground has reached the surface and emerged from the rescue tube Phoenix.
Florencio Avalos, 31, a foreman, was winched to freedom inside a slim capsule pulled through a 28-inch-wide shaft that had been drilled to reach the men’s underground refuge. Avalos emerged to ecstatic cheers from rescue workers and the families of the miners, but was shielded from the view of the media. Reporters have arrived from around the world to cover the rescue, which is planned to take about two days.
The other miners are expected to be rescued at a rate of about one an hour. Luis Urzua, 54, who emerged as the leader of the miners during the ordeal, is to be the last out.
Miners’ relatives, government officials anxiously waited for the first glimpse of the capsule and of a successful rescue with President Sebastian Pinera standing by to greet the miners.