WEBVTT - Calm in the Chaos: How Arnold Dix Rescued 41 Trapped Workers 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.400 We'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:06.800 on which this podcast was produced, the Galligall people of 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:10.440 the Urination. We pay our respects to Elder's past and present. 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:16.040 It's November twenty twenty three and the world's detention is 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:20.759 fixed on the towering Himalayas in northern India. A landslide 0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:23.400 has thus caused part of a tunnel to collapse, trapping 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:29.120 forty one workers for seventeen days. These men are cut 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:33.519 off from the outside world, their survival hanging by a thread. 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:40.480 Enter Arnold Dix. Arnold is no stranger to disasters. He's 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.479 worked on emergencies as complex as the Twin Towers collapse 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:50.600 and the London bombings, but this is different. Called in 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.160 to oversee the rescue mission, Arnold brings a unique mix 0:00:54.200 --> 0:01:00.000 of expertise. He's a geologist, engineer, lawyer, and risk stress. 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:06.600 Just bearded, calm and clad in hives, Arnold radiates confidence 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:10.759 to a watching world. He makes a bold promise. 0:01:11.000 --> 0:01:13.600 There's forty one men coming home and there's no one 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:15.479 else going to be hurt, and that's the mission. 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:16.119 Mission mission. 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:20.080 Over seventeen suspenseful days, Arnold leads one of the most 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:26.120 remarkable rescue missions in recent memory. He battles an unforgiving 0:01:26.240 --> 0:01:32.560 mountain and brings every man out alive. The result a 0:01:32.720 --> 0:01:36.520 victory that has made Arnold Dix a household name, not 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:43.000 just in India but across the globe. I'm at Middleton 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:47.080 and this is Headgame today, the story of a man 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:51.800 who brought together science, leadership, and a touch of humility 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:59.720 to achieve the impossible. Mister Arnold Dix, how are you, buddy? 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:02.280 How's life treating you? 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:03.000 Yeah? 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:06.480 Well, and I'm feeling good and life's treading me very well. 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:10.800 And I'm alive and yeah, I'm literally living the dream 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:12.079 like it's fantastic. 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:14.120 Alive and kicking as I. 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:16.320 Said, Yeah, absolutely, And. 0:02:16.200 --> 0:02:21.160 That's ultimately what you do. You keep people alive and kicking. Now, 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:25.640 Arnold is literally a life saver. Donold, how was your upbringing? 0:02:25.720 --> 0:02:28.440 Talk to me about your upbringing and were you always 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:33.800 interested in exploring in caves and tunnels and how does 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:34.080 that come? 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:40.440 Yeah, so I'm just a hotel keeper's kid, and so 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.560 in Australia, you know, my parents would go from hotel 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:47.320 to hotel and so place to place, and it meant 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:52.000 I was exposed to different people, different places, different just 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:54.920 different stuff. And it made me a bit of an adventurer. 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:59.560 So I'm interested in everything alive. I'm interested in everything 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:02.840 in Jineer. I'm interested in from a very early age, rocks, 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:07.200 which seemed a bit weird as a kid. And yeah 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:11.680 that's my early upbringing. Nothing flashy in my family, nothing 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.320 flashy with me as a student, in fact, a remedial 0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:22.000 student early on, and as really get very basic Aussie upbringing. 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:26.160 And yeah, so that's me, Like, there's nothing remarkable, you know, 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:28.400 just that I'm sure. 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:31.600 I'm sure there is. And I'm going to coax out 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:33.560 of you, nd I'm sure there's something in there. As 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:37.720 a child, you say, you know, he used to like rocks. 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:39.880 We all do as kids, you know. I think back 0:03:39.920 --> 0:03:42.680 in you know, in our era. And I say that 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:45.400 because you know, technology wasn't a thing. But back then, 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:47.440 you know, we didn't have phones. We didn't have iPads, 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:50.360 We certainly didn't have mobile phones. We used to be 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:52.760 out and about, didn't we pick up locks used to 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:54.680 fascinate me. I used to pick up some rocks and 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:56.960 I used to compare them with others. I used to 0:03:57.000 --> 0:03:58.160 have a look at it to see if there were 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:00.520 any diamonds in there. You know, just this the thing 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.920 that you do as kids. So did that really spark 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.800 your interest to become to take it as a career. 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:13.000 Yeah, so I think that is that that real excitement 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:13.920 as a kid, like could there. 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:16.120 Be a diamond in it? Is there gold in it? 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:17.480 Yeah? Yeah, exactly. 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:21.320 And around where I lived so different different places of 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:23.760 their old minds, so of course you went and tried 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:26.520 to get into the old minds. When I got to 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:28.839 about I think grade four, I was up in the 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:32.279 mountains of Australia called Snowy Mountains, a lot of tunnels 0:04:32.320 --> 0:04:34.200 up there, with a snowy scheme and a lot of 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:37.480 old blokes getting drunk and happy to take a kid 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.240 under their shoulder to show them what they did, you know, 0:04:40.279 --> 0:04:41.080 a few years ago. 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:43.920 So rocks. There's also a link between me and the. 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:46.280 Old timers, like, come here, young fellow, I'm going to 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:49.840 share a thing or two. And that was Yeah. I 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:52.080 think that influenced me a lot. And there was I 0:04:52.120 --> 0:04:55.200 suppose a quirky thing as well. Those old timers were 0:04:55.200 --> 0:05:01.159 mostly refugees from post Second World War Europe, and you'd 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.080 get like an old German guy who literally was X 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:08.480 S S or something, and he talked to you like, well, 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:10.680 the lady I work with in the kitchen, so I 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:13.719 used to do breakfasts and she would talk to me 0:05:13.760 --> 0:05:18.359 about going to the rallies with Adolf and what it 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.200 felt like. Wow, And you're like, I'm just a little kid, 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:25.160 like I'm just running breakfast trace and instead of watching 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.080 the World at War on TV, I've got and I 0:05:28.120 --> 0:05:31.600 remember her name with Missus Kluger was her name, And 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:35.719 she'd tell me stories of war, the you know, Second 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:40.560 World War Germany. And so that combined with the men 0:05:40.720 --> 0:05:44.080 showing me the tunnels a very rich and unusual sort 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:45.680 of environment to grow up in. 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:51.159 I can imagine. Did that really coax you into into 0:05:51.240 --> 0:05:55.080 wanting to, you know, go into a career and into 0:05:55.120 --> 0:05:57.440 further education to study. 0:05:58.160 --> 0:05:58.600 Oh. 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:02.560 I just like learn and stuff and I like doing stuff, 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:07.360 and so the combination drew me to practical sorts of things. 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:10.120 So geology mining engineering is the first thing I do. 0:06:10.839 --> 0:06:12.960 And that's cool because you get to do sort of 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:17.800 nature stuff but in extreme environments. And so you can 0:06:18.320 --> 0:06:22.279 travel to these amazing locations and then get involved with 0:06:22.360 --> 0:06:25.920 really amazing machines, meet characters because in the mining area 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:30.160 you meet all sorts of interesting personality disorders, which is 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:35.159 wonderful thing preparing you for the future, and they combine 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:38.120 well with all the characters in the hotel. So I've 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:43.240 always really enjoyed being a child, and I hope I 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:45.520 never stopped being a child, but a child in a 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:49.200 grown ups world and just watching how all the different 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:53.600 characters and personalities come together to form groups and how 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:56.039 they do stuff together, and that's really fascinating. 0:06:56.440 --> 0:07:00.799 And what a combination as well, geology and engineering You've got. 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:04.239 You know, you've got the fascination of how the earth 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.839 is you know, is created, or how the earth you know, 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.680 fits together, and then that side of being able to 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.280 sort of dismantle it and have a look at it 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:18.480 and you know, explore it in its entirety is a 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:19.520 fascination combination. 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:20.360 It is. 0:07:20.400 --> 0:07:24.240 And you, because you're doing the mining, you suddenly realize 0:07:24.240 --> 0:07:28.000 that the earth is alive, so it's not so rocks 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.240 instead of being the e static things that you look 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:32.720 at and maybe something you throw on a pond or 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:35.840 at a friend or maybe at an enemy instead of 0:07:35.880 --> 0:07:39.520 just as a weab. You start to learn that they 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:41.960 they're alive, and they move and they bend, and they 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:44.720 can be plastic, and they can be elastic, and they 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:47.960 can fracture and they can explode, and they can all 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:50.160 do all of that in five minutes on your head 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:54.920 if you're not watching. And so suddenly what began as 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:59.360 a childlike fascination with rocks ends up being, Oh my god, 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:03.800 the world is alive, this this underground world, and these 0:08:03.920 --> 0:08:07.840 mountains are moving, and and to do the sorts of 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.160 things that I end up doing, I have to be 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:17.480 really sensitive to this very dynamic, very amazingly not. 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.760 What you think a rock would be like, Hello, I'm 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:22.280 a rock. I do nothing. 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.280 No, no, no, These rocks are like, hey, Arnold, have 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:27.120 I got some surprises for you today? 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:30.080 So, yeah, it's fascinating. 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:34.560 So you finished education and when when do you? Because 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.280 you've been on multiple let's call them rescues or whether 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:41.800 it's mines, whether it's caves, tunnels, you've been on when 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:45.319 was your first call? And did you ever think that 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:50.040 you wanted to go down that road of rescuing people 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:52.920 or did someone to say, hey, this guy knows you 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:57.160 know absolutely everything about about tunnels and geology and engineering. 0:08:57.480 --> 0:08:58.880 Let's let's give him a call. 0:08:59.280 --> 0:08:59.600 Nah. 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:07.520 So actually I've never rescued anyone alive before, you see. 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:11.800 That's so this is part of the twist in all 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:12.040 of this. 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:17.520 So normally when I get called in, everyone dies, and 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:21.000 often some of us do as well, And so my 0:09:21.200 --> 0:09:24.640 job is to although of course we'd like to save people, 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.920 despite what's in the newspapers, despite what's in the movies, 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:31.880 normally everyone's dead. 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:33.239 And so. 0:09:34.480 --> 0:09:40.360 I'm really I'm more about Yes, I come and we 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.000 try and learn what's gone wrong. But normally people come 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:48.560 out in bags. And in fact, in my book, I 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.360 can't remember exactly the words I use, but I say, 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:53.559 that's perhaps my biggest lie. 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:55.080 That's my lie. 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:59.400 By omission, I never told anyone I'd never managed to 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:00.800 rescue anyone alive before. 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:03.600 See why. 0:10:04.320 --> 0:10:08.720 I promised that we would rescue forty one people, and 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.520 I promised that none of us were going to get hurt. 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:16.760 But the fact is I've never done that before, because 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:22.480 it never ends that way for me ever, not one wow. Okay, 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:28.080 So I'm not that guy who says, somehow, rather good 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:34.240 fortune follows me and somehow, rather I perform miracles, you know, somehow, 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.560 Rather if you get me it's going to end differently. 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:41.040 I'm not that guy. I'm actually more like the grim Reaper. 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:44.840 And I suspect that's why no one had ever heard 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:49.680 of me, because, you know, because no one who wants 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:52.840 who wants to know about all the people who are dead, 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:54.959 who wants to know about all the reasons for it. 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.600 Let's go straight into it with with with India. Where 0:11:08.080 --> 0:11:13.040 are you at the time when when you get the call. 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:20.640 I'm actually in Slovenia and I'm slightly involved in trying 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:24.600 to work out some alternative rail links, freight rate rail 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:26.480 links between Asia. 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:28.200 And Europe because of the war in Ukraine. 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:32.040 And so because Russia is no longer a path, try 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.680 to work out, you know, we bring maybe bring the 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:38.600 freight around with a different course actually down through the least. 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:39.920 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:44.400 And so I get the call from India's chief engineer, 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:49.040 Raju Raul Gupta, and he tells me what he's got, 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:51.360 and he asks me for my advice. 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:53.600 And what did he tell you he had? Because I 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.320 know that you're not shy or you're used to getting 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:59.480 this information, but yeah, this one was was a pretty 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:00.440 big one. Yeah. 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:02.560 Well, what was really different about this one is he 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:04.920 said at the time, he said he had forty live 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:09.880 ones inside a tunnel and there'd been a collapse. The 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.600 zoner collapse was in the order of one hundred meters. 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.560 The mountain was still moving. They're experiencing earthquakes. It seemed 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:21.480 to be in a very poor geological zone. Did I 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:25.160 have any thoughts? And he couldn't show me any images. 0:12:25.200 --> 0:12:26.880 So I said, hey, can you get me some pictures? 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.280 And so he jumped in a helicopter, went up, and 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:31.840 about a day or so later, came back to me 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:36.240 with some images and it looked pretty bad, and so 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:40.280 I said, like, look, I gave him my thoughts. This 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:41.920 is all on WhatsApp. By the way, this is an 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:45.240 It's not like some fan. It's like, hey, Arnold. Then 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:47.360 he says, can you talk to a colleague of mine, 0:12:47.360 --> 0:12:50.760 and he sort of pans the phone around. There's another 0:12:50.800 --> 0:12:53.080 guy in the room and he's advised of the Prime 0:12:53.120 --> 0:12:56.880 Minister of India, and he said, just tell me that again. 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.160 I said, well, this is what I reckon, blah blah blah. 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.280 And then they just said could you come and give 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:01.839 us a hand? 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:04.640 Like that's just just just as simple as that. 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:07.360 Yeah, And I think part of the surprise for that 0:13:07.440 --> 0:13:10.720 too is so there's no contract, there's no there's no money. 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:12.720 I mean, so there's no description of what I got 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:15.240 to do, there's no description of what I can't do. 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:17.240 All they asked is could I come and give them 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:20.000 a hand? And so I made my way to India 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:21.760 and ended up in you just. 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.040 Drop everything, just go right, yeah, I'm just going to 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:25.720 drop tools and a way I go. 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:26.200 Yeah. 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:30.920 So I just mobilized, went there and on the way. Yeah, 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:33.880 just by myself, yep, yeah, yeah, yeah, just just went 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:36.040 there and they were waiting for me. They had to 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.720 like the helicopter bit, like you know, the Rambo movies. 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.680 And so I find myself up in the Himalayas and 0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.760 now I'm part of this amazing team of people who, 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:50.840 by the time I get there, are feeling sad and 0:13:50.920 --> 0:13:53.360 we're losing hope because it had been a few days 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:57.079 and they had to sort of officially had press conferences 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.040 and told everybody that the workers would be out but 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:04.440 quickly blah blah blah, but they weren't. And also the 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.280 machinery they were using had failed, and so things were 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:10.240 looking pretty grim when I got there. 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:13.360 What were they asking you to do. And how was 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:15.480 were they caught in a tunnel, were they caught in 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:20.400 a cave? What was the situation because obviously they were workers, right, Yeah. 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:23.600 So you've got forty one young men probably lied about 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:28.680 their ages because they're from very poor villages, so they're 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.480 they're working. They've come from all around India to be 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:35.200 construction workers in a tunnel. The tunnel is being built 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.920 for the pilgrims, the Hindu pilgrims, to avoid having to 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:41.560 go across the Himalayas and go through the mountains to 0:14:41.600 --> 0:14:47.040 get to their temples. And the situation when I arrived 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:52.320 was there's about one hundred meters of internal collapse inside 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.960 the tunnel, so now it's completely blocked. There's a chimney 0:14:56.320 --> 0:14:59.280 of collapse rising up through the center of the mountain. 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:02.480 So we're getting aggressive collapse crowding a huge cavity up 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:03.640 through the center of the mountain. 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:06.320 There's like a. 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:11.320 Shear zone running along. Unfortunately the roof of the tunnel 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.120 and the shear zone is moving. So the data we 0:15:14.160 --> 0:15:18.040 had from our survey and our lighter data was showing us. 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:18.800 That the thing's moving. 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:20.200 And what's a shear zone. 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:24.080 Shear zones when one rock is no longer one, but 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:26.480 actually he's now got a big cut through it, and 0:15:26.520 --> 0:15:28.640 the whole thing moves along the cut like a bit 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:32.320 like a fault or something. So and as you found, 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:34.280 because you're a plucky gosh, you know better than me 0:15:35.280 --> 0:15:38.840 as a climber that mountain. People think the Himalayas is 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:44.160 really tough rock, and it's not. It's really weak twisted, 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:49.080 soft yeah, soft rock. And so this soft rock is 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:54.560 collapsing and they're experiencing minor earthquakes. There was progressive collapse occurring. 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.520 And so the feeling, and I know that's maybe odd 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.440 by putting it, but the feeling there they were losing hope. 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:07.120 So and because I had no instructions, because I was 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.280 trying to really sensitize myself to like what can I 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:12.400 do here? Like do they want me on dishes? I 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:14.440 can do dishes if they want, you know, do they 0:16:14.480 --> 0:16:16.720 want me on what do they want me to do? 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:20.680 I realized I had a really important role to play, 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:24.480 and the role was to make everybody believe that we 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:29.720 could do it. And that's the promise. See, I stepped 0:16:29.760 --> 0:16:33.160 in and I put my whole reputation on the line 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.360 and I promised that forty one men are going to 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:39.080 come home and that none of us are going to 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:42.600 get hurt. And yet no one asked me if i'd 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.360 have done it before, because I hadn't, And I gave 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:48.600 a time frame, and I said it with all my 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:52.480 heart and all my conviction, because for some reason I 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:57.040 believe that we could, And with that belief that we could, 0:16:57.240 --> 0:17:03.360 somehow that infected the team and somehow, because you've got 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:12.320 me there saying unequivocably, we will save forty one men 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:15.720 and none of us are going to get. 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:17.240 Hurt by Christmas. 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:21.040 I promise you, Yeah, I said, I promise, Like in 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:24.080 the book, I've got QR codes down the back where 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:28.439 I've actually got the TV interviews all from India, so 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:31.520 they're all coming off the TV channels where I'm standing there, 0:17:31.600 --> 0:17:34.439 poker faced in front of one point four billion people, 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:38.680 promising them that we're going to rescue all the men 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:40.600 and none of us are going to get hurt, using 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:45.280 the words I promise, wow. 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:49.480 Wow, and Arnold when you when you when you got 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.240 there and you just talk about you know the feeling, 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.000 you know, did you think to yourself? Right, I'm going 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:57.920 to tell them this Was it a pre a preempted 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:00.719 sort of statement, or did you hit the ground you 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:02.199 said about that fear, you know, when you hit the 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:04.920 ground and you feel either this is going to work 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:07.520 out or we can do Did you feel that positivity? 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:11.480 Did you feel that you know, that reassurance of the 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.639 situation to be able to deliver that statement in that moment, 0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:17.680 or was it something that you thought is a technique 0:18:17.720 --> 0:18:21.240 I'm going to use to breed positivity, to breed hope 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:23.479 so we can get this job done as fast and 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:26.199 as efficiently as possible. Or was it did you hit 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:28.640 the ground and go, do you know what? Wow? Because 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.720 I get that sometimes I go, I feel good here, 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:33.400 we're going to do this. We're going to do this. 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:37.720 That's exactly what it is. And I felt it. I 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.360 felt it on the plane on the way there, and 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:44.240 I knew even before I got there that we were 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:46.960 going to be able to do this, even though I've 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.720 never done it before. Right, Yeah, I felt we could 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:54.639 do this. And it didn't worry me. Well, it worried 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:56.760 me a little bit, but it was just a small voice. 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.160 It didn't worry me that I didn't know how I. 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:02.640 Felt you've never done it before. 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:03.879 Right, No, I've never done it before. 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:06.920 And I'm going to get two hundred of my new 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:09.880 best friends who probably don't even speak English, and we're 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:11.960 going to work as a team and we're going to 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.639 figure out how to deliver this promise. And that's the 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:19.320 way I was talking. We will save forty one men. 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:22.840 They are coming home and we're not getting hurt, because 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:25.359 it's important as the rescuers that we also feel like 0:19:25.400 --> 0:19:27.879 we're not going to get hurt. And I felt like 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:30.280 we could do it. And it's exactly what you said. 0:19:30.520 --> 0:19:35.199 I knew it inside, but can't explain it yet, you know. 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:38.160 Yet I had a call about something else since then, 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:40.920 and I knew that they were dead before I'd even 0:19:41.240 --> 0:19:44.879 thought of going there. I just knew, but I knew. 0:19:45.320 --> 0:19:47.399 I just felt that we could do it with these guys. 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:50.879 And that's a huge dilemma for me, because up until 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:55.479 this stage in my career, I'm a scientist, engineer. I 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:59.480 don't do promises when I don't know the answer, you know, 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:03.919 like I I'm conservative, But for this particular mission, I 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:08.359 felt felt, with a capital F and an exclamation mark 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:11.920 and no substantive explanation why, that we would be able 0:20:11.960 --> 0:20:13.639 to do it, and we did. 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:18.639 Wow. You know what that is? I always say it 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:21.080 and people say, ah, and you're speaking rubbish when I 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:24.639 say the power of positive thinking. You know, when you 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.919 just fill that moment, you react to the emotion that 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:31.320 you're feeling, and you make a decision or of that 0:20:31.359 --> 0:20:34.639 emotion and normally you know, it could be a positive emotion, 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:38.479 it could be a negative emotion, like you said, And 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:40.840 I get it. I get it, mate, I really really do. 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.119 So you hit the ground, you give out this statement, 0:20:44.160 --> 0:20:47.639 you give out this promise, you know, hence the title 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:50.439 of the book. What do you do thereafter? Is the 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:52.760 team energized? So how does a planning what does that 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:54.719 all that look like? Because obviously, like you said, you've 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:56.200 got a team of what two hundred people? 0:20:56.400 --> 0:20:59.280 Yeah? More, maybe even more. We've got a huge team there. 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:04.199 But there's something I did and which again I felt 0:21:04.560 --> 0:21:07.639 the most important thing to do when I arrived. So 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:11.520 I'm in this old Russian helicopter, like seriously, it's probably 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:15.639 older than me. It's a shocker, right. Anyway, somehow or 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:17.800 other it lands up there. I stagger out of it 0:21:17.840 --> 0:21:19.880 thinking well that was good. I wasn't killed. There would 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:22.320 have been a shame. Like all this excitement, I got 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:25.240 killed in a chopper crash with the landing. Anyway, so 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:29.239 we get there. I asked the head engineer while I 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:31.560 was flying on the plane if he could take me 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:34.520 to the temple at the front of the tunnel so 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:36.800 that I could pay my respects to the local god 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:39.439 before I went in the tunnel. That was the first 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:43.159 thing I did. And upon reflection, and why did I 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:45.639 do that, I don't know. It wasn't like I was 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:49.040 going through some complicated process. I just knew that that 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:52.400 was the right thing to do. Maybe maybe it's because 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:54.040 of my mum, because she always said you got to 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:57.040 like play by house rules, like who's Ever's house, you know, 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:01.200 respect and all that sort of stuff. So I bowed 0:22:01.240 --> 0:22:03.960 at this little temple that had just been built because 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:07.119 the earlier one had been knocked down. And that's why 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:10.240 the local priests believe the tunnel collapsed. There's a whole 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:13.919 sub religious story there, so they believe that it was 0:22:14.040 --> 0:22:16.840 disrespect of the gods which caused the collapse in the beginning. 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:18.879 And I was reading about that while I was on 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:22.199 the plane, and I went and I bowed, and I 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:28.400 gave prayer at their temple, and in doing that, I 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:33.359 attracted one point four billion people's attention because he is 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:38.600 an old bearded pink man jumping out of a helicopter, 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:42.520