NARRATOR: The Atacama Desert, Chile, August 5, 2010--
2,400 feet below ground, dozens of miners
toil in the sweltering darkness of the San Jose copper mine.
Suddenly, the Earth above them shifts
and dislodges a boulder the size of a 45-story building.
The massive boulder comes crashing down, causing the mine
shaft to collapse and blocking the ramp
that leads up to the surface.
MARC ARONSON: There were 33 men in the mine
at the time of the accident.
On the surface, they knew that there
had been a terrible accident.
But it was not clear what that meant for the men down below.
SIMON ROMERO: The outside world had no idea
if they were alive or dead.
People were really on edge.
They were watching this around the world on television.
It's really something that people were
following very, very closely.
NARRATOR: Search and rescue teams quickly
began to drill into the rock to try and free the miners,
but progress was slow.
For days, the world watched in suspense
as rescuers desperately continue to drill
in search of the miners.
SIMON ROMERO: There was a lot of concern
about their individual health conditions.
One of these guys had an ulcer that was really bad.
One of them was a diabetic.
So there were really desperate efforts
on the part of the Chilean authorities to find them.
MARC ARONSON: It was nearly impossible to find the men,
because nobody can see through the Earth.
And the maps were outdated.
And that meant, as one of the drillers said,
we're drilling blind.
NARRATOR: Finally, after 17 long days, one of the rescuers
drills uncovered evidence that, incredibly,
the miners were still alive.
The miners had found some red paint.
So that when the drill came down through,
they could paint on the drill to show that we are alive.
SIMON ROMERO: In the drill, they sent a note out that said,
in Spanish, "estamos bien en el refugio los 33."
We are OK in the refuge, the 33 of us.
And that really just changed everything.
NARRATOR: Rescuers sent down small packages
of desperately needed supplies through the narrow hole
leading to the miners.
They also sent down a small digital camera.
The video paints a harrowing portrait
of the conditions the miners had been trapped
in for the previous 17 days.
Somehow, the men had survived on only a week's
worth of food and water.
These miners were trapped almost half a mile
underground with a few cans of tuna fish.
They had to resort to drinking water that was
used for industrial purposes.
Also, they created a system in which
they had a democratic vote, one man, one vote.
In the majority, if they decided on something,
that was the way that they were going to go.
Without knowing it, the Chilean miners
walked into one of the most important survival strategies
there is, which is creating a sense of collectivism
and leaving each of them feeling less alone with this nightmare
that they were in.
NARRATOR: After discovering the miners were alive,
rescuers estimated that it would take months
to drill through a half a mile of solid rock
and reach the trapped men.
So here you are now August 20, August 22,
and the drill operator said to the team up on top,
we will be able to get them out by Christmas.
So you are going to have to tell the men
that you're going to have to be down in that mine
for three more months.
NARRATOR: To combat their feelings
of helplessness, the trapped miners
turned to their last remaining refuge--
their faith.
One of the things that really struck me
about why they were able to make it for so long
was their religious beliefs.
They really felt like prayer was one of their strategies to help
them make it through this.
Literature documents that faith is a significant factor
in survivability.
Sometimes individual faith, sometimes
it is faith of a community.
The hard part is, there is no science that we have
that absolutely defines it.
But faith has real tangible results for many people.
RAMANI DURVASULA: For the Chilean miners, many of them
were men of faith as part of their day to day lives.
So praying together, having that collective energy,
was just enough hope to keep a person going for another day.
NARRATOR: After 69 days, the rescuers
finally created a hole big enough to extract the miners.
Then, as the world waited with bated breath,
the men were brought up, one by one.
And astonishingly, all 33 miners made it out alive.
But perhaps what's even more incredible
is that they were rescued two months
sooner than everyone expected.
And the miners firmly believe that this unexpected turn
of events showed that a higher power had
to intervene on their behalf.
SIMON ROMERO: The power of prayer
played a crucial role in allowing
these 33 miners to make it.
It's even been said that God was the 34th miner.
Several of the men who were trapped down there
said that they really felt like their belief in God
was why they were rescued.