Drill punches through on 7th hole

HUNTINGTON — Every night family members drive to the Desert Edge Christian Chapel on the outskirts of this mining town hoping to hear any scrap of news on the fate of their six loved ones who remain trapped nearly 1,900 feet underground in the Crandall Canyon Mine.

"It's tough," Sonny Olsen, a spokesman for the miners' families, said Wednesday. One family member even told him: "Every day we come here and just get kicked in the teeth."

The families hope today will provide a miracle. A seventh borehole being drilled into the mountain punched through this morning into the mine at 1,865 feet. Yet after 25 days, some families are beginning to acknowledge their loved ones may be dead.

"They know the odds of survival are very low at this point," Olsen said. "I think they're beginning to come to grips with that, but they have not lost hope. I still see hope in some of their eyes. But they know the odds."

However, Olsen said, the families will not accept leaving their loved ones entombed in the mine.

"They hope one day to take their loved ones out of the mine and put them in their final resting place here," he said.

Patience is the key. Federal mine safety officials said it is still too dangerous to go underground because of seismic activity. It was a 3.9-magnitude event that caused the Aug. 6 collapse, trapping miners Luis Hernandez, Manuel Sanchez, Don Erickson, Carlos Payan, Brandon Phillips and Kerry Allred. On Aug. 16, a pressure-shifting mountain "bump" that registered 1.6 on the Richter scale killed three rescuers and injured six.

A panel of experts brought in by the Mine Safety and Health Administration and mine owner Bob Murray concluded it was too dangerous to be inside the mine.

"Nobody can even go in that area," said Rich Kulczewski, an MSHA spokesman. "The panel didn't even want to go in there themselves, and I don't blame them."

Federal authorities said their effort is still considered a rescue operation. As of Wednesday night, the drill had made it through 1,443 feet of mountain at a rate of 40 feet per hour. When it does break through, MSHA officials said, rescuers will tap on the drill bit in an effort to make some contact with the miners. Then a camera will be lowered into the mine.

The robotic camera was used at the remains of the World Trade Center after the 9/11 terror attacks. The robot would be able to maneuver in the rubble trying to glean some information about the miners' fate.

Conditions for drilling have not been ideal. Each afternoon, thunderstorms have moved over the mine.