Houston area man came up with plan to save Chile miners

Houston Chronicle:

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.

"Everyone was just jumping up and down and cheering and hugging," said Fisher, who, along with Hall, was on site at the mine to oversee the drilling operation until it was completed. "Most of the people were crying. It was just an unbelievable moment in time."

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One of the wonderful things about America is the number of guys like Hall and Fisher who have the know how to do something to accomplish engineering feats that save people's lives. Note, they did it without the help of the government.