down below, what might have turned into lord of the flies chaos instead became the 33-men democracy with miners organizing, choosing leaders, deciding on the honor of who would be the last to leave. in the hour ahead we ll take you inside that race, moment by moment, the challenges and setbacks, how they were overcome, the mechanical and human ballet that made it possible. ultimately to the incredible sight of those men emerging one by one from weeks of darkness. we ll start at the beginning with tom foreman. reporter: august 5th, 2:00 in the afternoon. 2300 feet underground, a shaft collapses in the san jose copper and gold mine. 33 miners are somewhere behind the rubble. their condition, unknown. the chilean president promises every effort to rescue them, but
such a dramatic moment. manuel gonzalez being lowered few the escape shaft, 10:19 p.m. eastern time. he was the first of six rescuers who would descend into that darkness. until that moment, the capsule had been tested unmanned and it had never been all the way down. the tests had gone well but there are never guarantees on any rescue operation, especially one this scale. the world waited with fingers crossed and what we saw minutes later was truly extraordinary. here s gary tuchman. reporter: 68 days after the collapse of the san jose mine, the beginning of the end of the saga is now clearly in sight. the world gasps in disbelief at the images, more than 2,000 feet underground. the first time anyone outside the immediate rescue team has seen live video of the miners.
the world gasps in disbelief at the images, more than 2,000 feet underground. the first time anyone outside the immediate rescue team has seen live video of the miners. there are cheers and hugs for the first rescuer, manuel gonzalez. is he the first person thave physical contact with the miners since august. the men appear in good shape. most of them in their underwear and shirtless in the 80-degree heat of the mine. 31-year-old florencio avalos switches places with gonzalez. up above, an anxious quiet falls over the rescue workers and families. there s also now a nervous silence among the 32 miners still underground. we ve been told this would take 15 to 17 minutes for him to be brought up, but the wheel seems to be moving quicker than the wheel when they went down to
they received correspondence from their family and friends and actually able to watch the live soccer games 2,000 feet underground, and one guy was running six miles a day, because he is a fitness nut. my prediction, wolf, is that these guys are going to do well by and large when they get out in the short term and the long term. you have written, ben, about some of the other survivors from plane crashes, and what could the chilean miners learn from other survivors in different circumstances, but still survivors of major horrendous events? wolf, very early on in this story, the survivors, a few of them from the famous andes plane crash on that glacier at 12,000 feet, and those guys, 16 people survived the horrendous ordeal for 72 days in the andes, and survivors from uruguay flew over