Hello and thank you for downloading the witness history podcast from the BBC World

Service with me, Rachel Nailer. I'm going to take you back to the Copiapo

mining accident in Chile, when 33 miners were trapped nearly 700 metres underground for

69 days. It's 2pm on the 5th of August 2010, and Mario

Sepúveda is operating heavy machinery down on level 105 of the San Jose copper and gold

mine in Chile's Atacama desert. I heard a disturbing,

unusual noise. I didn't think much of it, but 10 minutes later, my foreman came to tell

me that part of the mine had collapsed. How did you feel?

Moment, I was scared. The foreman took me to the main road of the mine in a pickup truck.

We met with most of my workmates at the junction. There was almost no visibility. You could only

see the light of the lamps, as the dust in the air was so thick. It was very chaotic. The

impact was huge, but nobody knew the exact location of the rockfall and how many miners

were there. They did a head count and realised there were 33 of them trapped. Their first thought

was to locate the rockfall. 700,000 tons of rock was blocking the central passage to the tunnels

and crucially, the way out. In that first moment there were different

reactions, crying, desperation. The usual when you face adversity, some people look for

someone to blame. Some blame God. It felt like the doors were being shut on our dreams.

33 people were alive, but under millions and millions of tons of soil. We didn't know if

people at sea knew there had been a rockfall. So many things crossed our minds. It was terrifying.

So did somebody take charge? Yes, of course, you are talking to him. They are

leaders who are hard, who, when a situation like this happens, don't know what to do. And then

they are natural leaders, who have live experience for these kinds of situations. I come from a big

...