Trapped Miners | featured news

Rescuers are dubbing the cage that will be used to haul 33 trapped miners back to the surface the "Phoenix Capsule" and say they will take delivery of the first one Saturday afternoon.

A bore hole reached 33 trapped Chilean miners Friday, officials said, but it must be widened before the miners can squeeze through -- a process that should take a few weeks.

Thirty-three men stuck a half mile underground are now the longest-trapped miners in recent history as a huge drill is the early stages of digging a planned escape route.

33 trapped miners trapped in a collapsed mine in Chile have sent new video to the surface in which they send greetings, show the space they are confined in and sing the Chilean national anthem.

Put on a show. Play cards. Sing. Get exercise. And whatever you do, don't get too fat to squeeze through the escape tunnel. Chilean officials are offering lots of advice to help 33 miners trapped underground keep their health and sanity as they wait to be rescued. One thing they're not sharing with the men is their estimate that it could take four months to drill them out of an emergency shelter nearly half a mile below the surface.

The 33 workers trapped inside a mine in Chile cheered, applauded and sang the country's national anthem in their first verbal contact with officials.

It was a remarkable tale of survival from the depths of a collapsed Chilean mine: After more than two weeks of failed rescue efforts, a video camera threaded deep underground captured the first images of 33 miners, all alive and apparently in good health. Officials said it could take as long as four months to dig a new tunnel wide enough to lift the miners to the surface.