Seventh rescue attempt to find trapped miners
The search for six men trapped inside a collapsed coal mine continued today, despite three weeks of drilling and digging that have revealed no signs of life.
US government and mine company officials said a seventh borehole was being punched into the Crandall Canyon mine near Huntingdon, Utah, and that a special robotic camera was being lowered into a hole drilled during previous efforts to find the men.
The camera is similar to one used to search within the wreckage of the World Trade Centre in New York City after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
It can take images in the darkened cavern from about 50 feet away with the help of a 200-watt light, can travel 1,000 feet from the end of the test hole and has some ability to move around the rubble.
“We’re very excited about it. The families are thrilled to hear this,” said Colin King, a lawyer for the miners’ families.
Images from the camera were not expected until later today.
Robin Murphy, director of the Institute for Safety Security Rescue Technology at the University of South Florida, said her camera’s ability to obtain images in the mine was a long shot. She said it was not clear whether the camera would fit all the way down the hole and into the mine, and that debris in the shaft could obscure any images.
“There’s mud, there’s rocks, there’s things that make it unfavourable,” Murphy said.
The Crandall Canyon miners were last heard from at about 3am on August 6, just before a thunderous shudder inside the mountain cracked the ribs of the mine and filled passageways with debris, cutting off an exit route. It has never been clear if they survived the cave-in.
Digging through the rubble-filed mine shaft was halted after a second collapse killed three rescuers and injured six others on August 16.
The new borehole announcement came a day after crews penetrated the mine with a sixth borehole, finding a debris-filled area too small for the men to survive.
“There could be no sign of life in such a condition,” mine co-owner Bob Murray said yesterday.
Murray said the seventh hole would be drilled into the kitchen area of the mine, an area where miners are trained to flee in case of collapse.
“We haven’t given up hope,” he said.
