*For 17 agonizing days, families above Chile’s Atacama Desert didn’t know whether 33 miners trapped nearly half a mile underground were dead or alive. More than 15 years later, footage the men recorded themselves is helping tell the extraordinary story of how all 33 made it home.
National Geographic has released the official trailer for “Chilean Mine Rescue: Race Against Time,” a three-part documentary series revisiting the 2010 San José mine disaster and the unprecedented 69-day fight for survival and rescue.
The series features never-before-seen cellphone footage filmed inside the mine, along with interviews with survivors, their families and rescuers. Six of the miners are making what National Geographic describes as their first appearances in an international documentary.
33 Men Trapped Below the Atacama Desert
On Aug. 5, 2010, a catastrophic collapse at the San José copper-gold mine sealed 33 men approximately 2,300 feet underground. For 17 days, their survival remained unknown. Then a drilling probe reached the miners’ refuge and returned carrying a handwritten message that electrified Chile and the world: all 33 were alive.
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What followed was another 52 days underground as Chilean engineers and rescue teams, joined by international drilling specialists and experts, raced to find a way to bring the men safely to the surface.
“Chilean Mine Rescue: Race Against Time” follows that journey from the collapse and the improvised system of survival the miners created below ground to the engineering operation unfolding above them.
The documentary also explores what happened after the rescue, including the sudden fame and lasting toll that followed one of the world’s most closely watched survival stories.
The Miners Help Tell Their Own Story
Among those featured is journalist Jeff Kofman, then an ABC News international correspondent, who reported from Chile as the rescue unfolded.
National Geographic says an estimated one billion people watched as the miners were brought to the surface one by one inside the specially designed Fénix rescue capsule.
The new series joins National Geographic’s “Race Against Time” documentary franchise, which previously explored the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. EURweb previously covered “Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time,” which similarly centered firsthand testimony and rarely seen footage from people who lived through the disaster.
Produced by Emmy-winning Blast Films, “Chilean Mine Rescue: Race Against Time” is directed by Chloe Campbell and James Parris.
“Chilean Mine Rescue: Race Against Time” premieres Sept. 25 at 8 p.m. EDT on National Geographic, with all three episodes streaming the following day on Disney+ and Hulu. Watch the trailer above.
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