Three Drills, Three Bets

The rescue plan was modeled on the 2002 Quecreek Mine rescue in the United States, itself based on a 1963 rescue in Germany. Both had raised trapped miners one at a time in a capsule. Chile bet on three drills at once: Plan A, a Strata 950 that started on August 30; Plan B, a Schramm T130XD that started on September 5; and Plan C, an oil-drilling rig that started on September 19. The first to reach the men would become their way out.