Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Saturday

Rescuers Within 20 Feet of Pennsylvania Miners

Aired July 27, 2002 - 18:01   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 LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And, right now, our top story -- rescue crews are within 20 feet of the underground chamber where nine miners are trapped in Pennsylvania. They stopped drilling for a while to install an airlock above the mine.

CNN's Jeff Flock is on the scene in Somerset, Pennsylvania with the latest there. Jeff, are we getting close to this news conference?

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are. We've got a news conference that perhaps you can tell behind me, just about to start. But I can tell you the very latest and that is that on that escape shaft one, they have now resumed drilling. They finished with that airlock and just a short time ago, they got back to the business of drilling, as you say -- 20 feet to go. And they're all ready to go ahead and do it, so we expect the very latest from the governor here and the rest of the folks from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and the mine folks to give us the very latest.

But, let me give you some of the latest pictures from the scene out there. One of the things that they have been doing is practicing. They're ready for almost any eventuality, and one of those things included in the practice is a string of ambulances that have gotten in place out there.

They've been practicing with stretchers. The rescue workers and perhaps you see out there, a lot of them look tired. And a lot of them are ready now, they're in place, they've gone through drills, they've practiced with that basket that they intend to lower down shaft number one. And, of course, as we've said, they've been working all day on shaft one and shaft two which now, of course, as you may know has had the work stopped because of the stabilizer that broke on that one. So, no action on shaft two but right now all eyes on shaft one.

They're going slow, though, because they want to be very certain they don't break off another bit down there because that would really, that would really be a heartbreaker, if they were to get so close and break another bit. But, that's kind of where we stand right now.

I think we have some graphic representation because viewers are constantly asking us to make clear just what it looks like there, and we can only do that through our best guess. Perhaps you see, shafts one and two off to the left there, next to each other. You see shaft one ahead of shaft two. Next to that, very close to that in fact is that airshaft, that's the first thing they drilled, it's a much thinner shaft.

They are pumping heated air with fresh air down into it to try to give them something to breath as well as expand that air pocket that perhaps you see depicted at the bottom of the screen where the miners are trapped. That other hole and there are a number of other holes as well that have been drilled where they are sucking water out.

Now, we are told, and we've not yet confirmed this -- we hope to get it at the press conference -- that they are -- they were waiting for a time to get that water level down to a level that, you know, would cause them not to have a problem with once they punch through to have water sucked back up into that bubble.

They've got the airlock in place, though, so even if they don't have the water as low as it needs to be they should be able to maintain that water level because it's all pressurized in there. All sounds kinda complicated, and for some of these guys it's the first time they've been through this sort of thing, but they seem to know what they're doing and I think, Carol, we're very close to being to the point where as the governor said, it's crunch time. This is the real thing and the real rescue begins.

We'll watch it and of course, we'll be back to you -- I look around here as we speak and I don't see the governor. I know he is on the scene, though, so should be any minute. That's the latest from here, back to you.

LIN: Well, Jeff, let's hope that the delay will bring some good news since they are so close.

But, I'm wondering if you could take us through the next step. Once they get all the way down to the mine shaft, there's the process -- there's a capsule, right, that they're lowering into the space and it sounds like their first opportunity, that will not necessarily be their first opportunity to actually get these guys out, they want to kind of scope it out first.

FLOCK: Exactly. Here's what they're going to do. They're going to take that capsule and they are going to lower that unmanned into the hole. What they'll do is they'll equip that capsule with a camera that they'll be able to see what's going on down there from the top. Also, it will have two-way communication, so if there is someone down there able to talk, they'll be able to communicate with him and he will be able to communicate back.

They're also going to have a strobe light on it, because, of course, what everyone figures it's pitch dark down there. A strobe light on it as well as a beeping device, something that will sound a kind of noise so the people are somehow incapacitated or you know not able to hear, that maybe that'll catch their attention or if they're farther away than they think from that shaft.

So that's their plan then if they don't get any response or if nobody comes up in the basket or communicates with them, then the plan is to send an EMT who is a mine rescue expert down again into that shaft and see if he can get a better sense of it. With the camera, they ought to have some indication of what's down there at least going in. How close we are to actually lowering that -- you know -- 20 feet to go and that really shouldn't take too long.

LIN: But, Jeff, I'm wondering is there any sign of life down there? Have they heard any tapping sounds, any voices, recently?

FLOCK: You know -- it's sad to report the answer to that question is no. It was Thursday at about noon the last time they were 100 percent sure that they heard tapping coming back. And that was a question we asked -- you know, what happens if you get the bottom of this shaft and there's actually nobody there. They really felt pretty confident that they had real taping coming back on Thursday.

And, you know, the explanation they give us many times is that it's been noisy and it may be that there's with that hot air coming down through that shaft that people haven't gone near it to tap on it again. Haven't heard the tapping that they've done from the top.

They've tried to take -- use seismographs trying to listen and sophisticated listening devices but with all the noise going on there, they think it is entirely possible that they just have not heard any communication that they have tried to give them back from the bottom.

And they really believe based on past experience with these sorts of things -- these sorts of accidents in the past -- that people can survive a week, maybe ten days. And, you know, I think even if they weren't 100 percent sure about the fact that there may be a lot of people down there you still have to go forward. You have to give it every ounce that you can.

LIN: And hope is very much alive out there. Thank you very much, Jeff Flock. We're going to be waiting on this news conference, I know you've got some more information to gather and we're going to keep our fingers crossed for some good news coming up. Thanks so much. We'll be right back.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com