On Monday, Chilean rescuers finished reinforcing the hole drilled to bring 33 trapped miners to safety and sent a rescue capsule nearly all the way to where the men are trapped, proving the escape route works. According to the Associated Press, tests were run where the empty capsule descended 2,000 feet, just 40 feet short of the shaft system where the miners have been trapped since an Aug. 5 collapse. The steel capsule, named Phoenix I, was lowered by winch into the hole after the top 180 feet were encased in tubing four separate times.
