<p><br /> To hugs, cheers and tears, rescuers using a missile-like escape capsule have begun pulling 33 men one by one to fresh air and freedom, 69 days after they were trapped in a collapsed mine half a mile underground.<br /> </p><p><br /> Five men were pulled out in the first five hours of the apparently problem-free operation in the Chile's Atacama desert, a drama that saw the world captivated by the miners' endurance and unity as officials meticulously prepared their rescue.<br /> </p><p><br /> Rescued first was Florencio Avalos, who wore sunglasses to protect him from the glare of bright lights.<br /> </p><p><br /> He smiled broadly as he emerged and hugged his sobbing seven-year-old son, Bairon, and wife, then got a bear hug from Chilean President Sebastian Pinera shortly after midnight local time.<br /> </p><p><br /> A second miner, Mario Sepulveda Espina, was pulled to the surface about an hour later, his shouts heard even before the capsule surfaced.<br /> </p><p><br /> After hugging his wife, Elvira, he jubilantly handed souvenir rocks from his underground prison nearly 2,300 feet below to laughing rescuers.<br /> </p><p><br /> Then he jumped up and down as if to prove his strength before the medical team took him away.<br /> </p><p><br /> A third Chilean miner, Juan Illanes, followed after another hour, the lone Bolivian, Carlos Mamani, was pulled out fourth, and the youngest miner, 19-year-old Jimmy Sanchez, was fifth.<br /> </p><p><br /> Through the first five rescues, the operation brought up a miner roughly every hour, holding to a schedule announced earlier to get all out in about 36 hours.<br /> </p><p><br /> Then, rescuers paused to lubricate the spring-loaded wheels that give the capsule a smooth ride through the hard-rock shaft.<br /> </p><p><br /> When the last man surfaces, it promises to end a national crisis that began when 700,000 tons of rock collapsed August 5, sealing the men in the lower reaches of the mine.<br /> </p>
