HUNTINGTON, Utah (AP) — A coal mine in which six men have been missing for two weeks is so unstable that rescuers will only be sent inside if there is an indication someone is alive, officials said Monday night, even as they acknowledged those hopes are fading.
"I don't know whether the miners will be found, but I'm not optimistic they will be found alive," said Bob Murray, co-owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine.
Richard Stickler, head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, said safety consultants brought in since the Aug. 6 collapse have determined that the mountain mine is still shaking and shifting. He said there are no plans to continue tunneling underground. Three rescue workers were killed and six injured last week when the shaft they were working in collapsed because the mountain shifted.
However, Stickler said a hole would be drilled so that a capsule could be lowered into the mountain if life is detected some 1,500 feet below the surface.
"The significant risk is unacceptable to send mine rescue teams underground 1,500, 1,600 feet for the purpose of exploration," Stickler said. "While there is significant risk, if we were to locate a live miner underground, we think it would justify to send a rescue capsule down."
The statements came after two days of criticism of officials levied by family members of the missing men. The relatives have pleaded for a hole to be drilled for a rescue capsule and said they felt betrayed by officials who had once vowed to keep searching until the men were found.
"My brother is trapped underground and I'm hearing that they're basically giving up and that's unacceptable," Steve Allred, the brother of one trapped miner, said earlier in the day. "One way or the other we've got to have closure."
The capsule had been considered a last, best option since the rescue tunnel collapsed.
Mine owners and federal officials have insisted for nearly two weeks that the men might be alive. But repeated efforts to signal the men have been met with silence, and air readings from a fourth narrow hole drilled more than 1,500 feet into the mountainside detected insufficient oxygen to support life in that part of the mine.
A fifth hole was in the process of being drilled and was expected to be finished Tuesday evening.