SANTIAGO, Chile — Chilean rescuers are growing increasingly optimistic about pulling the 33 trapped miners out far sooner than originally estimated, and with drilling quickly advancing on three narrow escape chutes, they raced Tuesday to decide on a design for the capsule that will lift the men to safety.
President Sebastian Piñera has staked his presidency on being able to show the world that his government has safely rescued the miners ahead of schedule. He promised the men after they were found to be alive Aug. 22 that they would be home by Christmas — a time frame mining experts called far too conservative — and then put hundreds of rescuers to work on three simultaneous drilling operations to reach them more quickly.
Barring unforeseen complications, the biggest drill could break through to the miners at a point nearly 2,000 feet underground in the second week of October. The engineer in charge of the rescue effort, Andre Sougarret, has said it would then take eight days to insert an iron sleeve in the 28-inch-wide chute to prevent rock falls while miners are being pulled out.
Sougarret said the rescue capsule — named Phoenix for the mythical bird that burns to ashes, only to rise again and live for hundreds of years — has to be ready within 10 to 12 days after they decide on a final design this week.
