but it also has wheels can you see now in the picture on the white part, the upper part of the capsule, the interior space i m told is just about six feet, four inches. explain what those wheels do, gary. reporter: the wheels help it go up and down, anderson, throughout this tube. this is 2300 feet. it s almost half a mile up and down. and they tested it the other day to make sure that it could go down, those wheels could operate without scraping dust, without scraping rocks and without making damage. it was a successful trip. they brought it down 2100 feet, not the complete way. we asked the mine official why didn t you bring it all the way down, and they said they were afraid the miners would try to get in, he said that half jokingly, half seriously. it would take 17 minutes for each miner when they come up. a shorter amount of time to go
tonight, to this gut-wrenching sickness and pain to find out that all the miners, with the exception of one, had actually died. so i think that s something that the entire mining industry throughout the entire world has learned, that it s better, you know, to have people know exactly what s going on, and try not to hide the information and to be open and honest with everybody as to what s going on. i think that s shared information, that lesson that we learned at sago has paid off in this instance here. and here we see again, underground images of the miners, 32 miners now, awaiting this the rescue capsule to come and the second rescuer to arrive. we re going to take a quick break. it takes about ten minutes or so for this rescue capsule to go down. we ll be back in just a few minutes. [ male announcer ] the next big thing from lexus is not a car.
we re also it appears as if florencio avalos is already inside that capsule. i think we re hearing actual sound from the miners themselves from inside there. [speaking in a foreign language] they re talking to manuel gonzalez, the people on the ground are talking to manuel gonzalez, the rescuer, who is inside the mine. translator: manuel needs to give the okay so we can proceed. so the folks on the ground are waiting for manuel gonzalez, the rescuer, to give the okay.
hypertension but so far can we say nothing life threatening? absolutely correct. and you have to remember, too, that these gentlemen haven t been sitting around waiting to be rescued but working very, very hard. they ve been clearing up to 12 tons of rubble every day. with some of the machinery left over in the mine and that s rubble coming down. that plan b drilling hole as the drill got closer and closer. they had to clear that rubble. some men had to lose weight to get into the tiny rescue capsule and running, jogging. over 2,300 feet beneath the earth. what an experience for them and staying fit. not only to the physical benefits but for the mental benefits, as well, kyra, trying to stay positive throughout the whole ordeal. amazing to see how positive they have been watching the 12 guys come up that 12th on the
you were both involved in the quecreek mine rescue in 2002. nine miners trapped underground. there s lila with her flip cam standing with mine officials. mine miners trapped underground for a little more than three days. wet and cold and this was the first time that we saw publicly at least one of these rescue capsules being used. joe, when you look at the scene here and you look at what s going on there in copiapo at the san jose mine, how are you struck by the whole operation? it brings back a lot of memories very similar to the operation at quecreek. we weren t down as deep but the same process, drill the rescue hole, make sure the hole is safe and then place the rescue capsule and lower it down and get the miner in it and bring the miner back out. although the depth is much greater in chile, the process is very similar. the depth much greater as we said some half a mile down that journey. we re watching the wife of one