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The Chilean miners are rescued
33 miners come up after 69 days underground
After a collapse at the San José mine, 33 miners were trapped about 700 meters down. Rescuers drilled shafts, sent supplies and lifted each man out in a capsule after 69 days.
On 5 August 2010 a section of the San José copper and gold mine near Copiapó in Chile's Atacama Desert collapsed, trapping 33 men about 700 metres underground. For 17 days nobody knew whether they were alive, until a drill probe came back with a note taped to it reading that all 33 were fine.
Supplies, food and messages were sent down narrow bore holes while engineers drilled a wider rescue shaft. A steel capsule named Fénix lifted the men one by one on 12 and 13 October 2010, after 69 days, and all 33 survived. NASA doctors and engineers advised on health, nutrition and the psychology of being confined.
The men's rescue was watched live by an audience of hundreds of millions around the world.
The rescue became a model for how engineers, doctors and governments can cooperate on a risky operation. Doctors examined the men after they surfaced, and most were in better shape than expected, though some later struggled with the psychological effects of the ordeal.