Re: Stupid Mining Question...
The miners had more than 1 hole. The air circulation vent is a second hole, some mines run power down from above the mountain.Limited time is right, the "bottom line" is what drives these companies. A real 2nd escape hole would double the price of coal (double most electric bills)and would not be cost effective and since the mine is constantly growing where/how could they keep digging escape holes?. Seriously, never seen a gopher dig 5 miles underground with safety net roofing, carbon monoxide, methane detecters and all safety equipment the miners use. Like one of the experts said, "better safety regulations are written in blood". I do wonder if they could have walked (crawled) out. They did as they were trained and retreated and put up the gas blanket and waited. According to reports now, the rescuers got to them at about 12,000 feet w/o too much problem, other than having to stop every 4 hours and then let the next rescue team come in and proceed. And how can they let the coal co. keep operating with over 40 violations? Some of the violations were for too much explosive material piled up.
