I am pretty sure it was Naobi and her crew that went on the search and rescue for Morpheus's ship. Then they contacted them around the time Neo found out about the keymaker. Remember when they were planning to knock out the power plant? Isn't that Naobi in the Matrix with Morpheus and crew? Then she and her team are the ones disabling the power plant backup power. But during that the sentinals blow up their ship and you see them all fall down, and thats when Trinity has to go in and make sure the power still is left off long enough for Neo to open the door.
I guess maybe somehow they could have survived the blast, but I would think if they get booted off the Matrix without an actual phone "exit" they would die. Thats what happened to Switch and Apac(sp?) in the first one.
