'Noise' gives rescuers hope in mine rescue

HUNTINGTON — Rescuers have detected noise from inside the Crandall Canyon Mine, giving them hope and prompting crews to immediately begin drilling a fourth bore hole in an attempt to reach six miners trapped nearly 1,900 feet underground.

Officials who have headed the rescue attempt warned, however, that no one should read too much into the detection of noise. It was, nevertheless, impetus for a renewed effort in what has been a disheartening attempt to find the men. with whom there has been no contact since an Aug. 6 incident that left them trapped inside the mine.

Shortly after punching an 8 5/8-inch hole 1,717 feet through a mountain, Wednesday, crews shut down all the heavy equipment to listen for any kind of signal. What they got was five minutes of "noise," said assistant U.S. Labor Secretary Richard Stickler. It was detected by seismic "geophones" which pick up vibrations and all types of noise in and above a mine.

"We saw some indications of noise for a period of five minutes we've never seen before," he told reporters tonight.

A fourth hole is now being drilled over the area where that noise originated. It gives rescuers some hope of reaching the trapped miners.

However, Stickler cautioned that they did not know what that noise was and not to read too much into it. The geophones have never been useful in identifying trapped miners yet, he said.

The development has given mine owner Bob Murray some hope.

"There's a very good chance we may find them alive," he said tonight. "There's no reason to give up hope."

Rescuers have had a frustrating series of setbacks in their efforts to make contact with the six trapped miners.

Today, they broke through on a third hole being drilled through a mountain into the area where the miners are believed to be. However, a bend in the drilling of the 8 5/8-inch hole only let a microphone get 20 feet from the roof of the area where rescuers hoped to find the men. They had to put it in a casing and try again.

Two other holes drilled into the mountain were also problematic. A 2 1/2-inch hole yielded nothing. The first 8 5/8-inch hole punched through, but a high-resolution camera lowered into the mine had technical problems.

When crews finally punched through the mountain on the latest hole, they banged on the drill pipe three times. It's a code used by miners to let those trapped know that rescuers are coming for them. If rescuers hear banging in response, they know they have made contact.

Rescuers heard nothing this morning.

Crews continue to try to reach the trapped miners underground through existing tunnels. That too, has been problematic. Overnight, another "bump" caused debris from the walls to fall on top of a continuous mining machine being used to drill through a collapsed section of the Crandall Canyon Mine. Underground efforts were halted for several hours while the machine was repaired. At last report, rescuers had drilled through about 800 feet of the 2,000 feet to where the miners are thought to be.

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