Sending rescue capsule into Utah mine is impossible

A mine company attorney today said safety experts believe drilling a bigger hole and sending a rescue capsule into the Utah coal mine where six men have been trapped for two weeks is impossible because the mountain is too unstable.

“It’s an unsafe activity,” Murray Energy Corp lawyer Chris Van Bever said, commenting a day after relatives of the six miners pleaded for rescue efforts in Huntington to continue.

Van Bever said there had been no decision yet to call off the rescue effort.

Decisions about drilling a rescue hole and continuing with other rescue activities were being made jointly by federal and company officials in consultation with mining experts, he said.

The capsule had been considered a last option since three rescue workers were killed and six others injured on Thursday as they tried to tunnel through rubble-filled mine passageways.

Family were outraged yesterday after grim officials said the missing miners may never been be found.

Mine officials had sustained hope for two weeks that the miners would be brought out alive.