Arnold Dix, a lawyer and engineering professor who is also the President of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, said he didn’t hesitate when authorities got on the phone with him after the collapse 17 days ago.
“It’s about helping your friends,” he told Today from the rescue site after the 41 workers climbed to freedom.
“When I got the call to come from the government, it wasn’t like, oh, let’s discuss anything.
“It was like, okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
The rescuers faced a monumental task, with “millions of tonnes” of rock pressing in above the stranded workers.
And there was a big possibility the mountain hadn’t finished collapsing.
“The thing is with this game that we’re playing, if we make a wrong move, everyone dies,” Dix said.
“Not only does everyone die who is is in there but probably us as well.”
He said the rescue had been a “millimetre by millimetre” process.
“I’ve done disasters my whole life, I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.
He spoke of the staggering complexity of the rescue operation, which he likened to poking a needle through the mountain.
“It’s like out of one of those crazy American movies,” he said.
“Not even one drop of blood.
“Somehow or other we managed to rescue all these people and it’s just phenomenal.”
And, he admitted, his peers had questioned his very sanity when he went to help out.
“If you looked at where the cards were, at our deck, you wouldn’t have been putting any money on us,” he said.
Nonetheless, he had pledged to get the workers home by Christmas.
“By messaging it that way, what I was saying not only to the people, look, stop getting stressed about how long it takes. Let’s concentrate on how we do it,” he said.
Despite his cool head in the process, he said emotion had taken over when the workers had climbed to freedom.
“We have shown the world that being good and nice and looking after other people’s kids is what we should do,” he said.
“I’m just over the moon. I feel like I’m just over the moon.”
Up next is a visit by invitation to a nearby temple, before he returns home to Melbourne.
“You want to know what is not cool, like seriously, seriously? I will be a health hazard to the whole of Australia. I haven’t been able to wash my clothes. I stink,” he joked to Today.
“No way Immigration or whatever it is should let me through. I should be put in that queue and squirt me with the pressure hose.”
