Two trapped miners lived on instant coffee for 3 days

Social Affairs

Published: 06 Nov. 2022, 16:24

Two trapped miners lived on instant coffee for 3 days

A 62 year-old miner rescued from a collapsed vertical mine shaft on Friday rests in bed at a hospital in Andong, North Gyeongsang on Friday. He wears an eye mask to protect his sight after his prolonged ordeal underground. [YONHAP]

Two miners who were rescued almost ten days after being trapped in a collapsed mine shaft in Bonghwa county, North Gyeongsang said they subsisted on packets of instant coffee for the first three days.

The pair were the last to be rescued out of a group of seven miners who were trapped when a vertical shaft collapsed at 6 p.m. on Oct 26.

Two miners managed to escape without assistance soon after the accident, while three others were rescued five hours later by the mining company. The company only requested the aid of emergency services 14 hours after the collapse occurred, when they had still failed to reach the two remaining miners.

Those two, both surnamed Park and aged 62 and 56, saw their 221-hour ordeal finally come to an end at 11:03 p.m. on Friday, when they were rescued by a two-man team composed of one emergency worker and another miner.

The two miners are recovering at a hospital in Andong, North Gyeongsang.

Park Geun-hyeong, the 42-year-old son of the older miner, expressed awe that his father survived.

“I can’t believe my father managed to walk out of the mine in such healthy condition and on his own two feet,” Park said.

“My father is eating well, is undergoing a speedy recovery and even took a few steps with my mother’s help to get cleaned up today,” he added.

The other rescued miner’s family said he was able to take a walk inside the hospital for a few minutes on Saturday and is recovering more quickly than expected.

According to video taken by their rescuers, the trapped man appeared to have endured cold underground temperatures by setting up a plastic tarp and lighting a small impromptu fire.

The mine company was criticized for waiting to report the accident and notify the families of the miners trapped underground.

Once called in, emergency services worked to check whether the two trapped miners were alive and create an access passage.

Three days before emergency services managed to make contact with the pair, they shared about 30 instant coffee powder packets they had carried down with them to the mine.

Once emergency personnel had confirmed the miners had survived the shaft collapse, the authorities sent down food and beverages, as well as medicine, thermal insulation blankets and family letters through holes they had drilled.

Park said his father does not want to work as a miner again after the accident, but that he was thankful for the authorities’ efforts to rescue him.

“My father said he likely can’t even look in the direction of the mine again,” Park said, adding that his father was in shock after realizing how much time had passed underground.

“But he also thanked so many people, including President Yoon Suk-yeol, who issued a rescue order, and other government agencies for helping him survive.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]