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Rescuer Manuel Gonzalez gets into the Fenix capsule, starting the rescue operation of the 33 trapped miners, at the San Jose mine, near the city of Copiapo, 800 km north of Santiago on October 12, 2010. Chilean officials delayed by two hours, until about 0100 GMT, the start of the risky operation to hoist the workers from the bottom of a collapsed mine. (AFP)
The door of a rescue capsule being used to pluck miners from a collapsed mine in Chile was dented Tuesday in a test descent, causing a delay while it was fixed, an AFP reporter witnessed.
The capsule re-emerged with scratches and dents after being lowered empty in the test run, and workers could be seeing banging on the door afterwards with a hammer.
Jorge Sougarret, an expert interviewed on Chilean television, said the problem occurred when the capsule dropped below a section of the shaft that is lined in steel cladding.
He said the transition caused the capsule to bang into the side of the shaft, causing the dent.
The metal capsule, four meters (12-feet) long and weighing 450 kilos (992 pounds), will be used to haul to the surface the 33 trapped miners now in their 69th day trapped underground.
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