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Reporter Jonathan Franklin taking notes at Paloma station.
Jonathan Franklin / Addict Village
Faith and Los 33 were never far apart during the rescue of the
miners.
Jonathan Franklin / Addict Village
Huge convoys of equipment rolled into Camp Hope nearly every day
to help with the rescue.
Ariel Caliban Marinkovic
Tears of joy filled the air when the rescue capsule began saving
the lives of the thirty-three men.
Ariel Caliban Marinkovic
On August 5, 2010, at the San José mine in northern Chile, 33 men
were entombed 2,300 feet below the earth when a slab of rock the
size of a skyscraper sheared off the mountain and sealed shut their
only access to the surface. The miners were discovered alive 17
days later, and for the next seven weeks after that discovery, as
rescuers sought to bring them to the surface, the eyes of the world
shifted to this previously obscure corner of South America. More
than 2,000 journalists and reporters flooded in to cover the drama.
But despite worldwide interest, the media rarely delved to either
the front lines of the rescue or below the surface of the tragedy.
Locked behind police lines, most reporters were reduced to months
of interviewing family members and politicians. However,
award-winning journalist Jonathan Franklin was the exception.
The print journalist with the most extensive access and contacts,
Franklin reported, recorded, and filmed from the front row of the
operation as it unfolded and, as a result, was afforded
unprecedented and unique access to the miners and the rescuers.
Now, for the first time ever, he tells their full story in
33
Men: Inside the Miraculous Survival and Dramatic Rescue of the
Chilean Miners
Franklin''s status as a "local"--he has lived in Chile for 16
years, speaks fluent Spanish, and has six daughters with his
Chilean wife--and his 25 years'' experience as an investigative
reporter provided him access other journalists could only dream of.
For almost six weeks he lived on the hillside that served as the
rescue operation''s nerve center. He sat in on planning meetings,
pored over government documents, and recorded sessions between the
miners and the psychologists charged with looking after their
mental health. He conducted interviews with miners'' families,
rescue workers, engineers, drill operators, and many others,
including President Piñera of Chile. Even before the miners were
rescued, while they were still underground, Franklin interviewed
them via a makeshift phone that connected them to the surface. "I
sat in this container where you could pick up a phone, dial eleven,
and the phone would ring down below," says Franklin, who developed
such a bond of trust with the miners that they described in great
detail the dramatic first 17 days of their confinement. Cut off
from the outside...
