John Waddell was rescued Wednesday night from a 100-foot deep abandoned mine shaft in a remote part of western Arizona after being trapped for more than two days. 

Waddell, a retired resident and an amateur mine explorer, was found by his friend and neighbor, Terry Shrader. The two agreed that if Waddell did not return home by Tuesday, Shrader would check on him. When Shrader arrived at the mine he heard Waddell yelling for help and called 9-1-1. Roger Yensen is Commander of the Maricopa County Mountain Rescue Posse.

“As we set up our systems we not only kind of worked on a plan A, but we developed a plan B and a plan C. So as we were building all of these systems we were really thinking of anything that could possibly go wrong and how to mitigate that.”

Waddell broke several bones in the fall. He also killed three rattlesnakes while he was trapped.