PRICE — There's a sense of helplessness in Denny Erickson's voice as he says he's willing to risk his own life to recover his cousin, who may already be dead.
But as the number of days that six trapped miners — Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Louis Hernandez, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Manuel Sanchez — have been unreachable has turned into weeks, an apparent lack of success and options has made Erickson and other relatives of the miners desperate.
Erickson, who is Don Erickson's cousin, says he and a handful of other family members of the trapped miners are ready and able to enter a two-foot metal capsule and be lowered into the Crandall Canyon Mine — regardless of the Mine Safety and Health Administration's misgivings that the attempt almost certainly would be deadly.
"They keep saying sending somebody down that capsule hole isn't worth risking any more lives to find these guys, but when you're family and you want them out, to you it is worth it," said Denny Erickson, a father of five children. "I'd be willing to sign a statement to say (Murray Energy Corp.) wouldn't be liable if something happened to me, and I'm sure other guys would, too, as long as they got their relative out."
According to Sonny Olsen, a member of a legal team representing the miners' families, two of Kerry Allred's sons and his brother have asked to enter themine through a capsule. Members of Sanchez's family have volunteered, as well as strangers who have called Olsen and offered their help.
"I've had people from all over the world call me and say, 'I have a team of people ready. We'll go down that hole,"' Olsen said. "There have been experienced caving teams, rappelling teams, rescue teams, (hazardous material) rescue teams — I was inundated with phone calls from people who are willing to do this, given the opportunity."
Olsen emphasized that the miners' families don't want anyone to be injured or attempt dangerous measures until the seismic activity in the mine settles down, but they are not convinced that the capsule attempt is as dangerous as MSHA officials have said.
"It would be a very extreme risk," said Jack Kuzar, an MSHA district manager. "With the smaller holes moving (with the mountain's seismic activity), you can imagine what would happen with a larger hole. The mine is continually settling. I can't answer how fast, but it is continually settling."
Olsen said the 36-inch hole that would be necessary to fit the capsule — and would take up to three weeks to drill — should be started now, in case the approach becomes a more realistic possibility and an exact location of the miners is determined.
An uproar against the threat of the mine being forever sealed with the miners still inside started about a week ago when Bob Murray, co-owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine, said the rescue teams are running out of options and the mine could soon be closed. As of Wednesday, a petition, located at www.gopetition.com/petitions/drill-crandall-canyon-mine.html, to keep the mine open had received at least 229 signatures from across the country in favor of recovering the miners' bodies.
Since Murray's initial statement about closing the mine, a seventh borehole has been started, and plans to lower an exploratory robot are under way. However, the question remains: What happens if the robot doesn't find anything?
Many calls do come into MSHA about new equipment that can be used in mine rescues, and some of those calls lead to improvements in rescue efforts. However, when those calls come during an emergency — as tends to be the case — they are often not ready for use, said Richard Kulczewski, a spokesman with MSHA.
MSHA officials may be running out of options of what to do next, besides drilling more boreholes. Several of the standard methods of retrieving trapped miners have been used, but a lack of developed, advanced technology may lead to a dead end, according to Mike Nelson, an associate professor of mining engineering at the University of Utah.
Nelson says a cutback on funding for the U.S. Bureau of Mines has strained mine safety research. However, that neglect could change with the national attention being given to the Crandall Canyon Mine, Nelson said.
"I think the general atmosphere in the U.S. is that people would pay a higher price for coal to make mines a safer place," Nelson said. "I think what's happened at Crandall Canyon will help to make that happen. Now, everything is tuned in more closely, and the public sentiment is in favor of making mines a safer place, so I hope the industry and the government can move in that direction."
Contributing: Josh Loftin
E-mail: achoate@desnews.com