Federal Agency Appoints Team To Investigate Utah Mine Collapse

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ The man who led the federal mine safety agency's investigation of the Sago mine tragedy in West Virginia will direct a similar probe of the Utah mine collapse that trapped six

Thursday, August 30th 2007, 6:24 pm

By: News On 6

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ The man who led the federal mine safety agency's investigation of the Sago mine tragedy in West Virginia will direct a similar probe of the Utah mine collapse that trapped six men this month, officials said Thursday.

The U.S. Labor Department, meanwhile, said an independent panel will review the Mine Safety and Health Administration's handling of the Utah disaster.

``MSHA's investigation will fully examine all available evidence to find the cause of the ground failure at Crandall Canyon mine and any violations of safety and health standards,'' Richard Stickler, MSHA chief, said in a news release.

The work will be led by Richard Gates, MSHA's district manager in Alabama, who investigated the January 2006 Sago mine explosion that led to 12 miners' deaths in West Virginia.

Hours after Stickler's announcement, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao said an independent team of mine-safety experts will review how MSHA handled the Crandall Canyon accident.

The review will look at MSHA's actions before the collapse and during the rescue operations. The investigators' tasks will include a study of all mine plans and inspection records, as well as interviews with MSHA employees.

The MSHA is an arm of the Labor Department.

Six miners became trapped more than 1,500 feet below ground after an Aug. 6 cave-in. Several test holes drilled to find them had found no evidence by Thursday that any of the men survived, but also no sign that they didn't.

On Thursday, crews successfully drilled a seventh hole through the mountain and into the mine, said Capt. Kyle Ekker of the Emery County Sheriff's Office. Teams planned to send a robotic camera through the hole.

Crews were tapping the drill steel to see whether anyone would respond to noise and were testing the air for oxygen content, said Rich Kulczewski, an MSHA spokesman. He had no results, and it wasn't known when the camera would be lowered through the nearly 9-inch-wide, 1,856-foot-long hole.

Searchers tried tunneling through the fallen debris to where the men were last working, but three rescuers died in another cave-in Aug. 16, and that effort was called off.

University of Utah seismologists insist the initial cave-in was violent enough to cause a 3.9 magnitude earthquake. The mine's co-owner, Murray Energy Corp., claims an earthquake caused the collapse.

The MSHA's investigation will involve people with no ties to MSHA's Western district, which oversees safety at the mine, 120 miles south of Salt Lake City.

They include Timothy Watkins, an assistant district manager in Kentucky who has ventilation and retreat mining experience; Gary Smith, a supervisor in Pennsylvania who has roof-control expertise; and Joseph O'Donnell, who is based in MSHA's district office in Alabama. Gates, who will lead the group, has been with the agency for 19 years.

An explosion at the Sago mine in January 2006 trapped miners deep inside. By the time searchers reached them about 40 hours later, only one man had survived in the carbon monoxide gas.

Gates' report found that lightning probably caused the explosion, though experts with the United Mine Workers union contend that the cause was a spark from friction between the mine's deteriorating rock roof and a metal support system.

Leading the independent review of the Utah collapse will be Joseph Pavlovich of Kentucky, a former MSHA district manager and an expert on mine rescues, and Earnest Teaster Jr. of Virginia, a former MSHA administrator for coal mine safety. Each has led three post-accident internal reviews.