12 of 13 miners found alive !

[caseydog]

Seems one died directly in the explosion. Amazing and Thank God.

Ray

[Justin]

Glad to hear that most of them made it out.

[telewinz]

Incorrect information of course.  Now everyone is angry that they were "lied to".  This is turning out to be more of the "story" than the actural loss of life. All the safety rules in the world won't make mining safe, it has always been a dangerous occupation.  If a lighting strike DID cause the loss of life, it's an act of God.

[280plus]

Sad part is it looks like they did everything right and almost made it.

They (the media) are now saying the company claims it had never released an official statement and that the initial report that they were alive was ultimately a "leak". What asses.

[caseydog]

Incredible , some talking heads should get slapped over this. Sorry for the misleading headline.....

Ray

[mfree]

a "leak" means the freakin' media did it and *they* ought to be sued.

[Guest]

a "leak" means the freakin' media did it and *they* ought to be sued.

Thats a bit hasty, the media reports what they hear, the question is; where did they hear it from?

[RadioFreeSeaLab]

This is what happens when no one actually checks the source.

[chaim]

Wow, the mine company knew after 20 min that the original reports of 12 alive and 1 dead was exactly reversed but waited 3 hours before telling the families.  According to some news reports the false story came from mine foremen calling the church where the families were waiting for news and reporting that 12 of them were found, though some families are reporting that they were told by mine officials the exact story that had come out (12 survivors).  The mine apparently has a long history of safety violations.  I think there will be much more in the coming days about this.  I do know that if I was one of the family members I'd be absolutely livid.

[telewinz]

The safety inspections were done by the State and Feds.  They obviously felt that the violations were not serious to close the mine.  Being a union mine a mechanism is available for  ANY miner to raise a fuss if he feels the working conditions are unsafe or below par.  The mine did have a higher than average amount of violations but until the nature of those violations are investigated (minor vs major) the number of violations may be pointless.  For a high school grad (or GED) to make $750+ a week for semi-skilled labor...there has to be a reason.  Why do some American truck drivers make $100,000 in Iraq?