These people walk towards mining disasters.

The fact they actually give a toss and are looking after Tom just the same as if he were part of the team and not just “some youtuber guy with a camera” is really heartwarming ❤ these guys care about everyones wellbeing and that is fantastic!

I appreciate that Tom keeps pointing out this is easy mode. He could keep hyping up danger and difficulties, but he says this is hard, and the training can get so much worse.

The Mansfield accent coming back is so wholesome!

I got flashbacks to Tom and friends doing the navy's sinking-ship simulator training, when he was assisting in replacing the roof prop.

Nothing but respect for these guys. They saved my Dad and Granddad in the 80s and 60s by rushing into things no sane person would want to.

One of the unexpected joys of this series is getting all of these nuances of regional accents on video. It’s so great to clearly hear the different midlands accents shown so far!

Perfect demonstration that safety isn't magic, nor is it trivial. It's planning and logistics taken to the highest extreme. Every scenario they teach was learned by blood and lives.

The instructor seems like a bit of a legend

"Me and the lads are gonna explore an abandoned mine, wanna come?"
"Hold on, let me check with the MRS"

I've read somewhere that checklists can be critical for people that "know every step of the way." Airline pilots use them, for example, and you'd absolutely want a pilot to know their aircraft and remediation procedures back to front.

What I read said that surgeons were initially resistant to use checklists because it offended them and made them out to be untrained. When they were implemented despite the doctors' complaints, errors went down by a significant margin and patients recovered faster.

The takeaway from that is that even if you are well trained and remarkably intelligent, when your task is intricate and includes several steps, it's always better to have a checklist.

Hey tom! Other people have said this already, but I'd love to see at the start of each video a map of England's counties, with your current one and the previously visited ones in different colors. Would be a cool way to have this feel like an actual trip and series!

(Edit : I've been made aware of the one in the description. It's definitely great that it's there! I'm still not really sure it couldn't be implemented anyways? The reasons given don't make much sense to me at least, you can just have it flash on screen while tom is talking so it doesn't slow it down, and a simple color coded map doesn't seem like too much information density/resolution wise? I do understand the whole "not wanting people to think they must watch the previous ones" argument but there's likely a way to prevent this as well?)

1:58 I designed the electronics in that BA monitoring gauge!

This is turning into "Tom Scott presents: fulfilling jobs that can't be killed by AI"

My great-grandfather was caught in a mine collapse nearly 100 years ago. He ended up on his hands and knees with a roof beam on his back and a man under him. Had to hold 300 foot of rock over the two of them for near an hour. Absolute hoss of a man he was.

Rescue efforts were a bit different then. Every man in town had a shovel and pick and just ran into the mine. Near 600 men tried to work that one rock face. Pulled 3 out of the rock and 12 more out of the tunnel beyond. No fatalities. Grandpa was the only serious injury--his back was never good enough to shovel 16 tons a day after that, so he drove mules.

Several years later they were working the 100 foot layer when one man suggested they have lunch in the sunshine. So they all went back to the main shaft, sat down, got one bite of their sandwiches, and a quarter mile of tunnel collapsed behind them. Grandpa never went underground again.

That old man was fearless. Not reckless, but fearless. If collapses scared him, then God bless these boys for running towards one.

The old saying: "Slow is Smooth, and Smooth is Fast" totally applies here.

I think it's so fun how despite taking VPN sponsorships Tom always remains totally truthful and mostly talks about spoofing your location instead of talking about data privacy, just like he promised all those years ago

Use the mnemonic ABC to diagnose a compound fracture:
A
Bone
Coming through the skin is very bad

The thing that "if the rescue gets stuck there are now two casualties" can't be stressed enough, very cool

Thanks so much Tom for visiting us at Mansfield and getting fully involved in the exercise. It was a pleasure to have you with the team and to showcase the realities of mines rescue and confined space training. You’ve done a brilliant job capturing both the technical side of the work and the teamwork behind it. Hopefully it gives people a real appreciation of what’s involved in preparing for these kinds of emergencies. You’re welcome back any time!

I did, technically, help. Part of me wishes they had made the exercise more difficult... but my back, however, does not. | AD: Also, thanks to NordVPN for hosting me! Like, literally, in real life, they were lovely. nordvpn.com/tomscott