As with the rescue missions in Pennsylvania and the Philippines, Chinese authorities were racing against rising flood waters in April 2010 to save miners trapped below ground.
A hole was drilled to create an air shaft down to the trapped men. Workers spent days pumping out flood waters until the level was low enough to allow rescuers to enter the mine and pull out the men.
Reuters reported at the time: "The survivors ate coal, bark and paper to get through their ordeal and drank the filthy water that surrounded them. Some built rafts in a failed bid to escape, or constructed rough platforms to try and keep above the flooding, state media said."
But the rescue mission was hampered, tragically, by the frantic efforts of the miners themselves to dig their way out. This had the effect of filling their safety chamber with water and complicating the rescue.
After eight days inside the Wangjialing mine in Shanxi Province, 115 of the 153 miners were pulled to the surface on April 5.
It was a piece of rare good news for the dangerous industry. Mine accidents in China are frequent due to a lack of adherence to safety standards and regulations. According to Reuters, an estimated 2,600 coal miners were killed in 2009 alone, an average of seven a day, down from 3,215 in 2008.
