HUNTINGTON — Plans are underway to drill a third hole, and possibly a fourth, to make contact with six miners trapped in a collapsed part of the Crandall Canyon Mine.

"It's heartbreaking. It's absolutely heartbreaking that we haven't found them alive," mine owner Bob Murray told reporters this afternoon. "But we have spared nothing in the wake of manpower."

Rescuers remain hopeful that they can find the six men trapped nearly 1,900 feet underground. Two holes drilled through the mountain above the mine have failed to make contact with the six men. Murray said the drilling has been by "trial and error."

This afternoon, mine officials and federal authorities showed reporters the latest video taken from a camera sent down into the mine through an 8 5/8-inch hole. The video itself is eerie. It spirals slightly down a long tunnel, breaking through some mesh wire, into a cavern with liquid dripping from the ceiling.

"Here in the back, you actually see the belt," said Rob Moore, the vice-president of Murray Energy Corp., one of the mine's owners. He pointed out a chain and some mining equipment highlighted in the darkness of the cavern.

"Here we have a typical tool bag," he said. "There is some rubble."

Yet there was no sign of Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Manuel Sanchez.

The federal Mine Safety and Health Administration said today it is possible the men fled to another part of the mine when it began collapsing early Monday morning. That is why they are drilling yet another hole through the mountainside.

"We asked the question where the miners would go?" said assistant U.S. Labor Secretary Richard Stickler.

The cavern the miners are in has about 5 1/2-feet of space from roof to floor. MSHA officials said they are also getting air samples showing varying degrees of oxygen in the cavern, renewing hopes that the men will be found alive — even after eight days underground.

"There are many, many reasons to have hope still," Murray said.

The families continue to hold vigil inside a junior high school, where they are now being briefed twice a day on the latest developments in the rescue efforts. Federal mine safety officials showed families of the trapped miners the latest video.

"There was no indication whatsoever of any of their equipment and any of them," said Allyn Davis, Mine Safety and Health Administration district manager, as he exited Canyon View Jr. High School this morning.

Still, Davis said he was "very encouraged by the amount of open area the video showed " because space is what they need. We saw a lot of space."

Davis said the miners could still be alive.

"That's why we're drilling this hole," he said.

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