Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Today
In Russia, Miners Trapped
Aired October 24, 2003 - 10:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're going to go ahead and begin this hour in southern Russia. That is where rescue workers are racing the clock to reach 46 miners who are trapped a half mile underground. Their air is running out, the electricity is off, and batteries are low. And maybe, most importantly, there has been no outside communication with the stranded crew.
Our Ryan Chilcote is unfolding drama. He joins us now with the latest developments.
Ryan, hello.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
Well, those 46 miners are literally a half mile beneath me here, deep in the Earth, where they have been for almost 24 hours now, when water that had been accumulating in a nearby mine that had been abandoned put so much pressure up against one of the walls of this mine that it actually burst through, and ever since then has been flooding this mine. Last night, it was flooding the mine at a rate as you can believe it of almost three feet a minute. That -- the rate of that water pouring in has slowed down a bit. It's now coming in at about two and a half feet every hour. Still, it is coming in.
What rescue officials are trying to do is to literally clog up the place where the water is coming from with concrete and Earth, and the bulldozers have been at it all day doing that. Another thing they are doing deep beneath the Earth, is they have teams of engineers that are frantically digging two different tunnels towards the place where they believe these miners are, where they believe they are, because, obviously, they don't have any communication with any of these miners.
We just learned 10 minutes ago that the Russian government has sent scuba divers here, as well and several boats. The hope is that these miners have found some kind of air pocket underneath all the water in the mine, one of the lateral passageways, that they are there under the water in this air pocket waiting for help, and that tomorrow, they may even be able to send those scuba divers in to try to approach that air pocket -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And I understand one of the problems as they are trying to get to the men, the possibility that the whole thing could collapse on them?
CHILCOTE: That is a distinct possibility. They are up against very serious odds here. First of all, there is no power inside the mine. So the elevator that normally in some kind of rescue that could be used to bring them up is not working. The water continues to rise. And they don't know exactly where they are. So they are really digging these tunnels blind, hoping that they think they know where they might be, but this is a very difficult situation. Without any communication with them, they have no way of knowing if these miners are still even alive.
KAGAN: You'll be tracking it for us from southern Russia. Ryan Chilcote, thank you for that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
9
Aired October 24, 2003 - 10:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're going to go ahead and begin this hour in southern Russia. That is where rescue workers are racing the clock to reach 46 miners who are trapped a half mile underground. Their air is running out, the electricity is off, and batteries are low. And maybe, most importantly, there has been no outside communication with the stranded crew.
Our Ryan Chilcote is unfolding drama. He joins us now with the latest developments.
Ryan, hello.
RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
Well, those 46 miners are literally a half mile beneath me here, deep in the Earth, where they have been for almost 24 hours now, when water that had been accumulating in a nearby mine that had been abandoned put so much pressure up against one of the walls of this mine that it actually burst through, and ever since then has been flooding this mine. Last night, it was flooding the mine at a rate as you can believe it of almost three feet a minute. That -- the rate of that water pouring in has slowed down a bit. It's now coming in at about two and a half feet every hour. Still, it is coming in.
What rescue officials are trying to do is to literally clog up the place where the water is coming from with concrete and Earth, and the bulldozers have been at it all day doing that. Another thing they are doing deep beneath the Earth, is they have teams of engineers that are frantically digging two different tunnels towards the place where they believe these miners are, where they believe they are, because, obviously, they don't have any communication with any of these miners.
We just learned 10 minutes ago that the Russian government has sent scuba divers here, as well and several boats. The hope is that these miners have found some kind of air pocket underneath all the water in the mine, one of the lateral passageways, that they are there under the water in this air pocket waiting for help, and that tomorrow, they may even be able to send those scuba divers in to try to approach that air pocket -- Daryn.
KAGAN: And I understand one of the problems as they are trying to get to the men, the possibility that the whole thing could collapse on them?
CHILCOTE: That is a distinct possibility. They are up against very serious odds here. First of all, there is no power inside the mine. So the elevator that normally in some kind of rescue that could be used to bring them up is not working. The water continues to rise. And they don't know exactly where they are. So they are really digging these tunnels blind, hoping that they think they know where they might be, but this is a very difficult situation. Without any communication with them, they have no way of knowing if these miners are still even alive.
KAGAN: You'll be tracking it for us from southern Russia. Ryan Chilcote, thank you for that.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
9
