Tragic.
HUNTINGTON, Utah - Six coal miners caught in a cave-in may never be found and could forever be lost to the still-quivering mountain, officials conceded Sunday, abandoning the optimism they've maintained publicly for nearly two weeks.
Air readings from a fourth hole drilled more than 1,500 feet into the mountainside found insufficient oxygen to support life, and the latest efforts to signal the men were again met by silence.
"It's likely these miners may not be found," said Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy Corp., co-owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine.
The news marked a shift in tone in mine officials' assessments of the chances the men would be rescued, hopes they had maintained even after three rescuers were killed and six more hurt Thursday in another "bump" inside the mountain.
There has been little evidence that the six miners survived the initial Aug. 6 collapse. Workers have gained limited access to the mine through four boreholes into which video cameras and microphones were lowered. Rescuers banged on a drill bit and set off explosives Saturday, hoping to elicit a response, but heard none.
Video images taken from the fourth hole showed signs of collapse in the cavern but no indication the miners were there, said Richard Stickler, head of the federal Mining Safety and Health Administration. Three previous efforts to reach the men via drilling have proved futile.
Engineering experts from around the nation gathered at the mine Sunday to try to figure out a safe way of reaching the missing men. Underground tunneling has been halted since Thursday's deaths.
Moore expressed doubt that the tunneling effort would resume.
"Thursday night we had an awful tragedy here," he said. "I can't say with certainty we will be able to continue the underground efforts. The risk is too great. We just simply cannot take the unacceptable risk and put additional lives in harm's way."
Moore had been far more upbeat Saturday night, when he insisted the men may be alive. But he said oxygen readings and video images taken from the fourth hole had changed his mind about the miners' probable fate. Oxygen levels in the hole are just 11 to 12 percent, incompatible with life. Normal oxygen levels are 21 percent.
Workers were starting Sunday on a fifth borehole into the mountain, more than 2,000 feet down, in another effort to find the men, but Moore said he expected to find insufficient air in that hole as well.
"Our thoughts and our prayers and our deepest sympathies go out to the families — for all those families involved in the two tragedies here," he said.
Our prayers are with the families also.
