Seventh Hole Being Drilled At Mine

Apparently, when someone goes to work at a coal mine they are trained so they know what to do in case of collapse. I'm not sure it's the same at every mine across the country, but at the Crandall Canyon mine the miners are trained to retreat to the kitchen area in case of collapse.

Why then, have officials waited until the seventh (yes I said seventh) attempt to locate the trapped miners to drill a hole into the kitchen area of the Crandall Canyon mine?

Murray said the seventh hole will 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.

You haven't given up hope. Great. Pardon me if I don't find sincerity in that statement. Why didn't they drill the first, or even the second hole into the one area the men were trained to make their way to? Just think, if they had looked for the miners where they were told to be, we wouldn't need to be talking about hope, and those miners could already be home with their families.

"We believe the right thing to do is to put another hole down and try to locate these men and in discussions with MSHA that was agreed to and that is what has been done," said Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy Corp.

The right thing to do?

Bob Murray had already announced he was ready to seal the mine after the sixth attempt. What caused the change of heart? Maybe a few threats from MSHA and other agencies who are planning a full spread investigation of the Crandall Canyone mine? If the owners of the Crandall Canyon mine were really "doing the right thing" they would have drilled that hole into the kitchen area two weeks ago.

Oh, and what's with drilling one hole at a time? It's been three weeks. Surely they could have requested more equipment at the mine and drilled a couple of holes at the same time, yes?