[yeahbut]

My thoughts are with the families of all those poor boys. 29 men is a heavy toll from a little west coast town.

Trapped miners: "no one would have survived"

What a rotten year for the Mainland.

[americandream]

My thoughts are with the families of all those poor boys. 29 men is a heavy toll from a little west coast town.

Trapped miners: "no one would have survived"

What a rotten year for the Mainland.

Yeah mate. I am gutted they couldn't get rescued.

[yeahbut]

My thoughts are with the families of all those poor boys. 29 men is a heavy toll from a little west coast town.

Trapped miners: "no one would have survived"

What a rotten year for the Mainland.

Yeah mate. I am gutted they couldn't get rescued.

Yeah. I knew it was unlikely but I still had some hope that maybe some of them might have been lucky.

I wonder how thorough the ensuing investigation will be?
Some interesting quotes in the paper today:

International mine rescue experts say they are shocked a mining disaster the magnitude of the Pike River tragedy occurred in a modern mine.

International Mines Rescue Body secretary Alex Gryska said the world would be watching an investigation into the tragedy, which claimed the lives of 29 men.

Mr Gryska said he would not expect a disaster of that magnitude in New Zealand.

"Having incidents like this in developing countries is one thing. Having it happen in western countries is uncommon."

It is understood the disaster happened after a power cut stopped the Pike River ventilator shaft, increasing methane levels in the mine, he said.

United Kingdom Mines Rescue operations manager Andrew Watson said safety alerts must have failed in the hours before the explosion at Pike River on Friday.

Methane levels have to reach five to 15 per cent of the atmosphere to cause a blast, he said.

Mr Watson said power went off in UK mines when methane reached 1.25 per cent and they were evacuated when it reached two per cent.

"So, either the warning system was inadequate, or it was not sufficiently monitored."

It was "shocking" that a tragedy the magnitude of the Pike River blast can happen in a modern mine, Mr Watson said.

Though he was not prepared to lay blame for the disaster, an investigation into what caused it would be closely analysed by international experts, he said.

"I've been in mines rescue for 32 years and I've never seen a disaster of this level. "The eyes of the world will be on this investigation."

[americandream]

There's a lot of stuff floating around at the moment so it's hard to really make sense of whats going on. Lets just hope there was no negligence involved in monitoring the mine in order to save a buck. It's bad enough we have lost 29 good men.