Rescuers get nearer to trapped miners By PAULINE ARRILLAGA, AP National Writer

Rescuers get nearer to trapped miners By PAULINE ARRILLAGA, AP National Writer
44 minutes ago



HUNTINGTON, Utah - Rescue crews drilling into a mountain to bring air and food to six trapped miners were two-thirds of the way to their target with one of two holes late Wednesday, officials said.

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A 2 1/2-inch hole was drilled to 1,000 feet by 11:30 p.m. MDT, said Lane Adair, general manager of the Crandall Mine, where the men were caught in a collapse early Monday.

The miners were believed to be in an area 1,500 feet below ground, according to Bob Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp., part-owner of the mine.

The smaller hole is intended to ferry a communications line into the shaft. There has been no contact with the miners, and it's not known if they survived the collapse, which was so powerful that it rained rock and blew apart the ventilation system.

Rescuers have drilled the smaller hole at a rate of 60 feet per hour but that pace likely will slow. Still, the company predicted both holes could be finished in 48 hours or less.

"Obviously we're dealing with the unknown," said Murray Energy vice president Rob Moore, referring to the potential for equipment breakdowns and dangerous ground shifts.

The larger hole, nearly 9 inches in diameter, could be used to move provisions to the workers. That drill had reached just 100 feet by 11:30 p.m. MDT, said Adair.

The bigger drill was faster and was expected to catch up, Moore said. Two holes were being drilled in case one is unsuccessful.

"Everything humanly possible has been and is being done to rescue these miners," said Murray, who wore a miner's helmet during a briefing with reporters.

Murray offered no estimate on how long the miners could survive — if they are still alive — but backed off a claim Tuesday that they could subsist for perhaps weeks on available air.

"The oxygen depends on the size of the cavity they are in, and I have no idea what size that cavity is," he said.

The task illustrated the specific dangers associated with the type of deep mining practiced in the West, where the terrain is rougher than it is in Appalachia and the coal mines are dug far, far deeper into the earth.

Over the past few days, the rescuers had to bulldoze 8,000 feet of road across the wilderness and use a helicopter to bring in heavy equipment. They had to balance their drilling rig on a 23-degree mountainside. And then they had to begin boring 1,500 feet straight down into the earth.

The circumstances made the rescue operation "extremely hard, one of the toughest we've had to deal with," said Allyn Davis, who oversees Western mine safety operations for the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

If the men are still alive, Murray promised to provide everything they need, including a toothbrush and comb, until rescuers can reach them underground — a separate operation that could take a week.

The Crandall Canyon mine is built into steep sandstone cliffs in the Manti-La Sal National Forest, 140 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Murray led a truckload of journalists just outside the mine's entrance in a narrow canyon surrounded by the national forest. The 7-acre site was crowded by huge piles of coal, a rock crusher, conveyor belts, steel buildings, and stacks of timber and steel posts for use in shoring up mine shafts.

The collapse early Monday sent "a huge gush of air" through the mine shafts, blowing apart the ventilation system, Adair said.

The shifting ground has increased the risk, he said.

"It's extremely dangerous at this point, and I've seen a lot of danger," Adair said.

The drillers had to be careful to keep the massive drill rig properly aligned while balancing it on the steep side of the mountain.

"If you don't have it aligned properly, you're going to miss your target," said Richard Stickler, head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

The height of the mountain and the extreme depth of the mine combined to require a lot of drilling.

Said Davis: "I just hope and pray we don't run into problems with broken bits or a broken drill stem."

By contrast, the Quecreek mine in Somerset, Pa., where nine miners became trapped in a flood in 2002, was just 240 feet below ground, and it took rescuers 77 hours to reach the men. The Sago mine in West Virginia where 12 were killed in an explosion last year was 260 feet down.

Murray spoke to reporters Wednesday after meeting with the miners' families at a school in Huntington, 10 miles away. At one point, he left the building, paced outside and returned.

Maria Buenrostro, the sister of trapped miner Manuel Sanchez, 41, said Murray got angry with relatives' questions and walked out. She also said there was no interpreter for three Spanish-speaking families.

"We want the truth, that's all we want," said Buenrostro, 40. "If there's nothing that they can do about it, you know, just tell us so we know what to expect when they bring them out."

Murray said the families had thanked him.

"You can't make everybody happy," he said. "In a trauma like this, as the days wear on, tensions become more and more. I have been truthful with them."

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Associated Press writers Jennifer Dobner in Huntington, Utah, Brock Vergakis in Salt Lake City and Vicki Smith in Morgantown, W.Va., contributed to this report.