HUNTINGTON, Utah - Despite three weeks of drilling and digging that have revealed no signs of life from six men trapped inside a collapsed coal mine, officials said Sunday the search was continuing.
Federal and mine company officials said a seventh borehole was being punched into the Crandall Canyon mine 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 Center in New York City after the Sept. 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, officials said.
“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 Monday.
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 unfavorable,” Murphy said.
The Crandall Canyon miners were last heard from about 3 a.m. Aug. 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’s 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 Aug. 16.
Sunday’s 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, officials said.
“There could be no sign of life in such a condition,” mine co-owner Bob Murray said Sunday.
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.
Murray had previously said the sixth borehole, drilled more than 1,700 feet deep, would be the last before sealing the mine.
