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CNN Live At Daybreak

Look at Amazing Mine Rescue in Western Pennsylvania

Aired July 29, 2002 - 05:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And let's turn to that amazing mine rescue in western Pennsylvania now, or should I say the investigation. State officials say they want to learn just why the miners' map didn't show an abandoned water filled tunnel close to where the miners were working. As you know, the miners hit a wall where the other mine was, sending millions of gallons of water into their area.

Our Jeff Flock has more on the rescue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. MARK SCHWEIKER, PENNSYLVANIA: All nine are alive.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Confirmation from Governor Mark Schweiker of his wildest of dreams.

SCHWEIKER: And all nine are alive and we believe that all nine are in pretty good shape and the families now know that. So it's incredible.

FLOCK: Minutes earlier, drillers punched through the last of 239 feet of rock, into what they hoped was a pressurized refuge. Down the former air hole goes a two way. Miraculously, someone on the other end is there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's an undying faith there that these guys were coming out. I mean I never lost faith. I knew they were coming out.

FLOCK: At 1:00 a.m., 43-year-old Randy Fogle, complaining of chest pains, becomes the first miner out of the hole. Minutes later, he is airlifted to the trauma center in Johnstown, where we talked to his doctor.

DR. RICHARD SALUZZO: Some patients in this kind of situation when they lay on one part of their body for a day or two they get break down of their muscle, and that can inure their kidneys. So we need to do a lot of, a large workup still on him before we give him a clean bill of health.

FLOCK: Not long after a live hookup is established with the drill site and the families, America and the world watch them emerge, one by one, every 15 minutes or so, coal soaked and wet. One man amazingly even has some juice left in his headlamp. As they come up in a cage like cylinder last successfully used in a mine rescue in 1972, their names are read to reports.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Number two miner at 1:15 a.m., Harry Mayhugh. That's M-A-Y-H-U-G-H. Name, Tom Foy, F like Frank, O-Y.

FLOCK: Rescuers, plagued by broken bits and other setbacks along the way, say they won't celebrate until all nine are lifted up. And with 41-year-old Mark Popernack, who apparently helped organize the group below, the last man does emerge.

SCHWEIKER: For the world to see...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: At times like these when men are faced with what could be their final hours, many turn to saying good-bye to the family. Rescued miner Blaine Mayhugh talked about that while his wife, whose dad was also stuck down in the mine, talked about keeping the faith.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLAINE MAYHUGH, RESCUED MINER: It was Thursday around 12 noon and the water started rising and we was running out of room. So I asked the boss if he had a pen and he knew what for. I said, well, I want to write my wife and kids, you know, to tell them I love them and, you know...

LESLIE MAYHUGH, WIFE/DAUGHTER OF MINERS: I just kept praying and I had good beliefs. And I knew that he was going to get through. I knew I couldn't lose my dad and my husband. I just knew it so...

BLAINE MAYHUGH: OK...

LESLIE MAYHUGH: It wasn't their day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Tom Foy, the father of Leslie Mayhugh and Blaine's father-in-law has been a miner for 20 years. But according to another daughter, Foy says he will never go underground again.

You can see more of this dramatic rescue by signing up for CNN's news pass. Just go to cnn.com. You know we make it simple. You can watch video of the rescue plus the interviews with the miners and their rescuers. It's right here on your demand.

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