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Travels From:
Sydney
Fee Range: C
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Darren Flanagan received a call late on the Sunday night that Beaconsfield Miners Todd Russell and Brant Webb were discovered to be still alive. How that one phone call changed his life from that of an ordinary family man to a real hero of the great escape is an emotive, dramatic and inspiring story.
Flown by a private Lear Jet at midnight from his home town Nowra, Darren was taken directly to the mine. It is to be a flight that changed his life forever.
Darren was nicked named The Gun by Todd and Brant because he was the one who charged and fired the explosives that eventually released them from their tomb 925m underground.
He spent a full week underground after his arrival, test blasting at the 630m level to simulate what he hoped he would never have to do. As this had never been done before anywhere in the world, he presented the results to the mine management who asked Darren to eventually blast to within 300mm of Todd and Brant.
All the while Darren realised that he carried immense pressure on his shoulders, knowing that if he failed he would spend the rest of his life with the whole world saying, "That's the guy that killed those miners".
As the distraught miner's family's watched, Darren started to blast his way closer and closer to the trapped men using specialist explosives that were designed to help reduce impact on expensive infrastructure but were never designed to be used near human beings.
Darren has spent a lot of time underground but has never had to work in a cracked and broken tunnel that is 16m long and only 1m in diameter and almost 1km inside the earth. He is so claustrophobic he can't do up a sleeping bag but he worked for 29 hours straight with ice cold water soaking him to the bone, afraid of closing his eyes. He could visualize the anxiety of the two men and his own family.
"When you are underground you can usually hear the ground talking to you, moaning and groaning. When it stops talking, you worry. The ground had now stopped talking".
Firing that very first shot was the hardest thing Darren will ever do in his life. He was petrified and so were Todd and Brant, the problem was that every other method to reach the boys had already been tried and failed, the blasting was a last resort and also the boy's last chance.
Darren crawled over razor sharp rocks letting off 65 explosions all the time in contact with Todd and Brant by phone. They counted down together "three, two, one, fire" so the miners could brace themselves for the effects of the explosions. Thinking its over, Darren stumbled off to sit and cry with relief that he didn't kill them.
The mine bosses hugged him but then revealed that they wanted him to fire two more shots. Darren pleaded with them, knowing how much it was chancing. They had been lucky so far, but one more explosion could be the one that killed Todd & Brant.
Speaking to Todd and Brant over the phone, they were aware of the increased risks but encouraged Darren to carry on it was their only chance. "Please don't leave us here mate, you must promise me that you will stay until it's finished", Todd's words still ring in Darren's head.
So wrestling with his own demons he slowly crawled back up the tunnel, dragging himself by his arms because his knees were so badly cut and swollen. The tension in the air as Darren prepared for the final shots was unbelievable. Amazingly they brought the rescuers to within less than 300mm of Todd and Brant.
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