Finding a buried entrance

A massive landslide buried the Trishuli 3A tunnel portal underground. Engineers triangulated its position using old maps, satellite images, and visible power poles.

“I've never known a rescue operation where you had to look for an entrance of a tunnel that was previously up the hill, that was now underground.”

Blasting through car-sized boulders

Car-sized rocks completely plugged the passageway. The Nepalese army deployed ultra-precise explosives to clear the debris without destabilizing the mountain or injuring survivors.

Draining the flooded tunnel

Rescuers encountered immense volumes of water inside the passage. They used excavators and heavy pumps to carve drainage trenches leading straight out to the river.

Carving a micro passage

Teams dug a crawl space barely the size of a person along the top of the debris. Using the original tunnel's ceiling as a roof mitigated the risk of collapse and flooding.

Contact in the dark

Early Friday morning, rescuers called out through the rubble and heard a faint response. They successfully pulled out two workers alive through the narrow passage.

“It's like layer upon layer of miracles”

Racing against dual flood threats

Teams must dig another 150 meters to reach the main power station. They face constant danger from trapped internal water pockets ahead and fresh floods from behind.

“Up ahead, even now, we might run into water which would drown the people tunnelling.”

Targeting the Goldilocks zone

Rescuers are aiming for the uppermost level of the subterranean station, where air pockets and shelter give trapped workers the highest chance of survival.