Video suggests good air in mine

HUNTINGTON, Utah – Images from a videocamera lowered Wednesday into the mine where six men were trapped 10 days ago showed an undamaged shaft and a curtain that could mean the men, if they survived the initial blast, found breathable air, the mine’s co-owner said.

Rescue officials were reviewing the images, which were the first from a camera lowered into the third borehole drilled into the mountain. The camera picked up no sign of the miners, but showed a hemp ventilation curtain that divides intake air in the mine from the exhaust air.

If the miners passed through the ventilation curtain, they would be in a pocket of good air, mine co-owner Bob Murray said late Wednesday.

“There was no damage at all. The roof is intact; no ribs have outburst.

The floors are in place – it looked just as it did when we mined it,” he said. “If the men went in there, they could be alive.”

Earlier Wednesday, some noise was detected by devices monitoring vibrations in the mountain, raising “a very small amount” of hope that the men might be found alive, officials said.

The sounds detected by two geophones could be a rock breaking underground or even an animal, said Richard Stickler, chief of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

“We saw some indication of noise for a period of about five minutes that we had not seen before,” Stickler said.

While the source of the noise wasn’t known, Stickler said it had “created a very small amount of hope and optimism” among the families.

There are a total of six geophones on the mountain, all of which picked up measured noise Wednesday morning, some stronger than others, Murry said. The vibrations occurred every 1.5 seconds, in a steady pattern for five minutes, he said.

“We have no idea what that sound is, but we are going to know when we get the fourth hole down there,” Murray said.

Plans for the location of a fourth borehole, to begin today, had changed because of the “unusual” noise readings, both men said.

Murray, who is chief of Murray Energy Corp., the co-owner and operator of the Crandall Canyon Mine, also cautioned: “Don’t read too much into this noise we picked up, but it is a sign of hope.”

Still, experts say the chances of finding the men alive are slim.