is about to get in what looks like a strange neon-type elevator, but it s really their rescue capsule. you can see, it s going to go through the straight rock, a half mile. he is the bolivian among the 33 miners, the only one. the other two chilean. so tomorrow, we are likely to see the president of bolivia, ava morales will come with the fam three make sure that everything is going well with them. an international contingent here. he has worked here sometime. this will be number 4. so far, the first 3 have come slowly, steadily without incident. as that wheel begins to turn clockwise that, means the capsule will go up. it took a few dings in some dressed rehearsals. they hammered it out. so far, it s running smoothly. you can see the paint chipped in some places. but right now, the nation
it work. it s a wheel with a rope attached to it. as you were speaking, now it s moving again, and it s coming out right now. we see it dangling out right now, and a lot more people are there, which may signify exactly what karl was saying, we may be about to put someone in there. the mine rescue official, and bring him down, and then maybe within an hour see our first miner come up. but family members, three family members are being brought here for the first three miners who are coming up. three people from each family are allowed to watch from inside tents near the site to keep an eye when their loved one comes out of the capsule and meet with them at a reunion center that has been constructed specifically for this purpose. but the rest of the families are being kept away. they ll come when it s their turn, when their loved one comes up in the capsule. let s talk about the capsule as we continue to stay on these pictures. karl was pointing out the hole is about 28 inches in diamet
from the mine. we believe it could be anywhere from 12 to 16 to 17 minutes for him to get up here, maybe as little as ten, because it took about ten for the rescuer, manuel gonzalez, to go down. karl penhaul is standing by at camp hope where the miners families have been. there s two family members, maybe a third, of this first miner. they ve been brought in in anticipation of him coming. karl, do you have a sense of how far away the phoenix capsule is? reporter: i believe it is i believe the capsule is now no more than two, 2 1/2 minutes away, judging by the time that the rescuer took to get down, this capsule is really moving quite fast, it seems to be going
moment that the very first miner stepped out of the rescue capsule. [ applause ] [ chanting ] that was miner number one, florencio avalos. got a big bear hug from chile s president before being carted off for the medical test. he was the cameraman in the isolation. remember the video, the pictures, that was because of him. he shot the vi owes of the miners sent up to the surface. his brother is still down there but i can promise you as soon as he comes up, that dark tunnel to
larry: before we check in with jesse ventura, let s go back to the mine and karl penhaul with the latest. what s up? reporter: well, what they are trying to do is get this phoeni phoenix to rescue capsule in shape. it s now on its second test run into the rescue. there is a slight problem, and this is what the engineers are now working at, to fine tune, to tweak. the problem is, it s a tight fit in this rescue shaft, and it really has to be that way, because if it s not a snug fit, then what could happen is that the rescue capsule could begin to gyrate, it could twist down, it could corkscrew into the mine and that s not good. on the way up if that happens, the miner could get nauseous, disoriented or even faint. the rescue capsule has rubber wheels on the side and those rubber wheels have to expand out to the side to make the fit.