Ted Koppel, ABC News, covers the final 12 minutes of the live coverage in Midland Texas showing the rescue of Jessica McClure. Rescue to the surface is at about 10:02 elapsed time.
Between October 14 and October 16, 1987 rescuers worked for 58 hours to free “Baby Jessica” from the eight-inch an well casing 22 feet below the ground.
Jessica sat down on a well’s edge after removing a potted plant from the top of the well. She dangled her feet inside the narrow opening, but slipped into the well when she tried to stand up. Jessica fell about 22 feet inside of the 120-ft deep well before she got wedged inside. Her left leg fell beneath her while her right leg became pinned to her chest. Jessica’s forehead was stuck against the side of the well which kept her from falling the full 120 feet..
A water jet cutter was used to cut through rock parallel to the side of the well after other traditional cutters — even diamond tip cutters — were too slow to do the job rapidly.
