i feel it in my feet

Then the word came from below: the drill was through! Workers at Plan B were slow to grasp that the mission had been completed. Hart Joked, “I thought it was my heart exploding.” Golborne and Sougarret began hugging. Then a champagne cork popped. A truck horn wailed. And finally the Plan B platform was filled with hugging and jumping helmeted workers. The men embraced and locked arms around each other’s shoulders. They danced in circles. Throughout the valley, a cacophony of horns, bells and yells filled the air. After two months, the rescue tunnel had reached the men.

Hart immediately began to pack up. His job was done. Now it was time to let the Chileans take over. Wandering through Camp hope in his oil-stained work overalls, he gazed in wonder at the hole he had drilled to the trapped miner’s remote refuge. Hart seemed baffled by his instant celebrity status. Women hugged him; reporters shoved and grappled to record his every word. Yet Hart was unable to explain his talent. With eyes that said, “You will never understand,” he looked at the reporters and stated, “I am a driller. If you are not a driller you can’t understand me. It is a vibration that comes up from the ground. I feel it in my feet, and then I know where the drill is.” Had Hart’s drill slipped off course by 20 inches, he would have missed the tunnel. He had thrown a bull’s-eye. Like a long-distance sniper, he was perfect.


33 Men: Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the Chilean Miners by Jonathan Franklin. Putnam 2011. p.227