Thirty-Three Days to Reach Thirty-Three Men

At 8:05 a.m. on October 9, Plan B's drill broke through into the miners' workshop, after about 33 days of drilling. The day before, Plan A's pilot hole had reached only 85 percent of its depth, and Plan C's rig 62 percent. Only the top 56 meters of the new shaft needed a steel casing. On October 11, the rescue capsule made an empty test run, stopping just 15 meters short of the bottom.