'Plan B' rises to the top for minersSuburban Houston driller was kept awake at night with the idea of bringing Chileans up earlyBy Zain Shauk
Houston Chronicle
Oct. 13, 2010
More than 4,000 miles from the chamber where 33 Chilean miners waited to be saved, Greg Hall lay awake in his bed, tossing and turning in frustration.
It was August when the drilling industry veteran heard the estimated rescue date — December, at the earliest — and he was not impressed.
"I would go to sleep, and I'd wake up in an hour or so just thinking about those guys sitting there in the mine, with 2,000 feet of rock above their heads. ... It really bothered me," Hall said.
He made calls, day and night, eventually sitting in his small, two-desk Cypress office as he crunched numbers on his calculator and hashed out a broad plan that led to cheers around the world Wednesday as the miners were rescued.
The plan, known as "Plan B" because it was the second of three considered by Chilean authorities, was solidified and developed into reality after Hall, the owner of Driller Supply International, a company with a Chilean subsidiary, connected with Brandon Fisher.
Fisher is president of a Pennsylvania company, Center Rock, which owns a powerful hammering drill head that made the plan possible.
Together they coordinated with drillers and Chilean officials to push forward a plan that would shave two months off of initial rescue date estimates.
. . .
Fisher's equipment played a key role in the only prior comparable mine rescue - a 1998 operation where nine miners were saved after being trapped in Quecreek Mine in Pennsylvania. However, that effort involved drilling a straight line down 230 feet, he said.
In Chile, the team had to use Hall's drilling pipe, Fisher's drill head and other equipment while turning through the existing hole 2,300 feet, hoping not to shift underground rock, Hall said.
. . .
In the end, the plan that grew out of a suburban Houston office seemed to work, although it faced its challenges.
After Hall presented the idea and suggested Fisher's equipment, using his connections with Chilean officials through his company's operations in the country, the effort hit roadblocks as drill heads deteriorated against hard rock deep underground.
The pace of digging slowed from 20 meters an hour to under four meters an hour, forcing crews to change and repair the drill head every 12 hours.
At one point, the crews pushed a worn-out drill too hard. It shattered, halting work for five days as workers fished out the pieces, Hall said.
. . .
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/7246077.html______________________________________________________Pretty amazing stuff.
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