Remarkable Rescue

Nine Pennsylvania coal miners were trapped 240 feet underground when an abandoned mine flooded the shaft they were working in at the Quecreek Mine on the evening of July 24. Here, two Pennsylvania State Troopers guard the entrance to the rescue site.

Pennsylvania Gov. Mark Schweiker explains the rescue plan during a news conference in a closed supermarket, July 25.

A U.S. Dept. of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration emergency truck sits on the road leading to the entrance to the Somerset, Penn., mine, July 25.

Concrete and gravel is poured around a pipe that is to be used as a base to drill a large rescue hole, July 25. Workers heard tapping near where the miners were trapped earlier in the morning.

A lone workman watches as a large drill begins making a tunnel that will hopefully reach the miners, July 25. The rig had to be brought in from West Virginia, and getting it to the site set the rescue effort back about 20 hours.

People hold hands and pray near the rescue site, July 25. It was a second catastrophe for the community, which is located just 10 miles from where Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11.

Ambulances stand by during the rescue effort. The nine men emerged in surprisingly good condition after standing in 3-4 feet of cold water for days. Trauma surgeon Dr. Russell Dumire says a hot air pipe that was funneled down to the men probably saved their lives.

Workers check a 1,500-pound drill bit, July 26. Rescuers had drilled about 100 feet when the bit broke, and it was 18 hours before a new rig could be set up to dig a second shaft.

Work continues to retrieve the 30-inch broken bit, July 26. Once removed, drilling continues on the first shaft.

Two drills work to reach the men at the site, July 27.

Hazardous materials experts practice the procedure they will follow once the miners are removed, July 27. All types of emergency equipment and personnel were dispatched to the scene, including ambulances, 18 helicopters and nine decompression chambers.

Weary rescue workers watch the drilling on the first rescue shaft.

Water spews from rig one, a normal part of the drilling process that cools the drill bit.

Pennsylvania Gov. Mark Schweiker announces that the nine miners are alive after the first shaft breaks through and a telephone is lowered down to the men, July 27.

The first of the freed miners, Randy Fogel, 43, is carried on a stretcher after coming out of the rescue capsule, July 28.

The third miner is helped out of the rescue capsule during the early morning of July 28.

The ninth and final miner is removed from the shaft. Blaine Mayhugh, one of the rescued miners, later told reporters the men had tied themselves together to, "live or die as a group."

This sign outside a local McDonald's was changed from "Pray for the rescue of the miners," to "Welcome Back Miners! Nine Alive!"