When 33 Workers Were Trapped Under 2,300 Feet Of Ground For 69 Days | The Incredible Story Of Chilean Miners

What happened when 33 miners were trapped 2300 feet below the ground for 69 days? Actually, this is an incident from Chile that occurred in 2010, when 33 miners went for mining and during their mining session, suddenly they heard a loud sound, which caused the mine to collapse. Actually, the date was August 5, 2010, and as usual, the 45-km long copper and gold mine built in the Atacama Desert of Chile was being excavated in San Jose. The mine was owned by the San Esteban Primera Mining Company, whose workers were engaged in the work of extracting copper and gold from the mine. 

While digging, it was two o'clock in the day, when suddenly a big hill broke and fell at the mouth of the mine. Due to this, the mouth of the mine was closed, causing the 33 workers working in the mine to get trapped inside it. The mine continued to collapse and the workers trapped inside the mine continued to slide further down. The result was that those 33 miners were now trapped in the ground 2300 feet below, but outsiders thought they must have died, but luckily, they were alive. Actually, there was an emergency shelter built under the ground and they took the temporary protection under that shelter and stayed safe. But unfortunately, all the exits from there were closed. Now the workers had no way out and they started waiting for help from outside. They had limited food and water, on which they could survive for the next few days.

At the behest of their family members, the Chilean government started a rescue operation there, as a result of which the operation of drilling holes in that mine with large machines was started immediately. For 17 days, there was no word from the miners, but finally, on the 18th day, the rescue team came to know that the miners are still alive as they had found a written note on the drilling machine about their survival. After knowing this, the rescue team started preparing to take out those workers even more vigorously. Consequently, a capsule was prepared immediately and with the help of that capsule, the work of taking out each miner was soon started. Finally, after 69 days, on 13 October 2010, all 33 miners were taken out safely one by one. But being buried 2000 feet down and still coming back alive after 69 days is indeed a sign of great courage.