A miner issue

[Indiana_Jones]

-Indy

[scissorhands]

Its such a sad thing for so many people, especially those in the mining community and their families

[steve74]

I knew of most of those guys, I went diving with one of them earlier this year. Greymouth is a small town, Most were guys you see about on a weekly basis or you know their families. Im not directly involved with any of the families but i still feel numb. I cant begin to imagine how the families feel. Tomorrow will be a dark day. Its going to be tough.

RIP

[RiderInBlack]

My thoughts are with those close to the Miners. Every time I have stay in Reefon, the people here have been awesome. They have an awesomely close community that they can be proud of.

[Grubber]

it is....I agree. We all know they are in pain and I for one do not need to see a mother's/wives'/childs' pain displayed upon my TV....channel changed. Now to go and embrace my family and enjoy the time I have with them.

Wouldn't want to have watched Campbell Live last night then. I changed channels after seeing his bullshit.

Condolences to the huge family of Coasters that will be suffering now.
Extremely sad day.

[Maha]

Wouldn't want to have watched Campbell Live last night then. I changed channels after seeing his bullshit.

Condolences to the huge family of Coasters that will be suffering now.
Extremely sad day.

Alot of the media stuff coming out of there is crap..Sainsbury asked the question early on ''is mining a dangerous job''? ....and yesterday Corin Dann was talking to Phil Goff in Greymouth and at the end of the interview he said ''one last thing Mr Goff, the Mana election..'' If I was Goff I would have just walked away.

[phill-k]

An outcome nobody wanted but I believe those with the knowledge and information probably surmised that the miners succumbed in the first blast or shortly there afterwards.

If a young person asked me who they should aspire to Peter Whittall would be my choice, a man who stepped up, and preformed a job he could only perform based on his own personal character and standards, I have been humbled by his demeanour and abilities.

The Police Officer also performed a role as a spokesman for the search & rescue attempt, he was not making the decisions on his own but he was the spokesman for the decisions being made, a difficult job but I feel the Police need to learn a lesson from this, the operation was not a crime scene and as such his methodology of disseminating the information was not helpful to the families and meant many became angered at his messages. His demeanour was that of an autocrat a man used to specking to subordinates and not being questioned, the police have a number of public relations and media savvy people who should have been brought in to undertake that role. I am sure that was the reason the commissioner of police and the minister visited and attempted to show their solidarity with their man, they knew his demeanour was alienating the families and the wider community. I’m sure as a Police Officer he is very effective but the two vastly different styles displayed make it obvious Public Relations is not his forte.

[Grubber]

Alot of the media stuff coming out of there is crap..Sainsbury asked the question early on ''is mining a dangerous job''? ....and yesterday Corin Dann was talking to Phil Goff in Greymouth and at the end of the interview he said ''one last thing Mr Goff, the Mana election..'' If I was Goff I would have just walked away.

So just as bad there too huh.
Maybe its time the media tried to show some positivity now and then and stop trying to create friggin headlines all the time.
It's a real bastard for sure.

[nudemetalz]

RIP to the miners

[scott411]

If a young person asked me who they should aspire to Peter Whittall would be my choice, a man who stepped up, and preformed a job he could only perform based on his own personal character and standards, I have been humbled by his demeanour and abilities.

agree with this 100%,, he stepped up to do a job infront of the world's media, and infront of a group of families being told the very worse, and did it with humility and courage,

[smoky]

I am the first generation of my fathers family that wasn't bought up on the West Coast - 5 generations of coasters. I did my apprenticeship in the coal mines in Huntly, and was part of the local mines rescue at the time. I have also worked in the mines briefly while living in Australia ...... and have been shocked at what has happened

We were always reminded and warned about the dangers of working underground, regularly you had events that caused you to reflect on the dangers of your environment. However we were trained, and felt prepared, but death was always a very real possibility. So I don't know why I'm so shocked - perhaps the number of fatalities in one go? Perhaps too many unanswered questions?

I am also angry at the Police - perhaps miss-placed, but suspect they prevented a rescue being undertaken hours after the first blast - preferring to wait until they knew it was safe.
While every miner I know - knows the safest time is straight after the initial blast that has burnt off the accumulation of gasses - you go then or you have missed your window of opportunity
Or am I just a little shocked and want to blame someone, and I'm not exactly up to date with latest mines rescue procedures

I look at my 7 year old boy, my 5 year old daughter - and think about how sad it would be for them if I didn't come home again
For their mother who would be left to carry on

and then think about the devastation of so many families and their lives yesterday

[martybabe]

I spent most of my working life as a 'rescuer', however valid the decision not to commit the rescue teams was, I'd like to pass on my thoughts to the guys and Girls that never got a chance to do their stuff. I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been to be on standby for such a long time only to end up , eventually, with the worst possible outcome to this disaster.

Along with the Families,friends and community, they will be devastated by the loss. An incredibly sad outcome for everyone, I really hope they can get in and remove the miners for the families sake.

Condolences to all those involved.

[phill-k]

I am the first generation of my fathers family that wasn't bought up on the West Coast - 5 generations of coasters. I did my apprenticeship in the coal mines in Huntly, and was part of the local mines rescue at the time. I have also worked in the mines briefly while living in Australia ...... and have been shocked at what has happened

We were always reminded and warned about the dangers of working underground, regularly you had events that caused you to reflect on the dangers of your environment. However we were trained, and felt prepared, but death was always a very real possibility. So I don't know why I'm so shocked - perhaps the number of fatalities in one go? Perhaps too many unanswered questions?

I am also angry at the Police - perhaps miss-placed, but suspect they prevented a rescue being undertaken hours after the first blast - preferring to wait until they knew it was safe.
While every miner I know - knows the safest time is straight after the initial blast that has burnt off the accumulation of gasses - you go then or you have missed your window of opportunity
Or am I just a little shocked and want to blame someone, and I'm not exactly up to date with latest mines rescue procedures

I look at my 7 year old boy, my 5 year old daughter - and think about how sad it would be for them if I didn't come home again
For their mother who would be left to carry on

and then think about the devastation of so many families and their lives yesterday

Not sure you can place blame on the police for not entering the mine, he very early on explained that he was taking advice from experts on what and when things should happen, I just don't think he handled the dissemination of the details in an empathetic way, to me he displayed almost an arrogance, probably necessary in a lot of his work, but not the image that the families and general public needed.

[slowpoke]

An outcome nobody wanted but I believe those with the knowledge and information probably surmised that the miners succumbed in the first blast or shortly there afterwards.

If a young person asked me who they should aspire to Peter Whittall would be my choice, a man who stepped up, and preformed a job he could only perform based on his own personal character and standards, I have been humbled by his demeanour and abilities.

The Police Officer also performed a role as a spokesman for the search & rescue attempt, he was not making the decisions on his own but he was the spokesman for the decisions being made, a difficult job but I feel the Police need to learn a lesson from this, the operation was not a crime scene and as such his methodology of disseminating the information was not helpful to the families and meant many became angered at his messages. His demeanour was that of an autocrat a man used to specking to subordinates and not being questioned, the police have a number of public relations and media savvy people who should have been brought in to undertake that role. I am sure that was the reason the commissioner of police and the minister visited and attempted to show their solidarity with their man, they knew his demeanour was alienating the families and the wider community. I’m sure as a Police Officer he is very effective but the two vastly different styles displayed make it obvious Public Relations is not his forte.

While I can understand your reaction to Police Superntendent Gary Knowles I actually thought he did a good job. Don't forget who/what he was faced with when he stood in front of the camera's: a huge media rabble. The way they carried on/harped on and generally badgered with often stupid and inane questions (what relevance has the 9/11 disaster to a coal mine FFS?) pretty much called for a straight down the barrel, authoritarian approach otherwise it would have degenerated into an absolute circus. As it was he managed to keep a lid on most of the bullshit at the media conferences unlike some of the media shenanigans off camera which make my stomach turn, fuggin hyenas.

As someone who's worked both above and below ground in the mines (not coal) and now offshore on a gas platform as a member of the Emergency Response Team I can understand their rescue philosophy. In all the MOME (Management of Major Emergency) training I've done the primary responsibility is to not make the siutation any worse. Putting more people into an extremely hazardous environment could ultimately have lead to an ever greater loss of life than the tragic loss we've just seen.

Waiting as they did was probably the hardest of all things to do, but I reckon it was the right thing. With extremely limited information on the downhole environemnt sending more people in would have just been rolling the dice with more lives at stake, and with no guarantee that the guys trapped were even alive.

My heart goes out to all involved, it's such a tragedy the way it's all played out.

[Paul in NZ]

Yes - my understanding was that the first 4 or so hours are the safest after a blast. But given the location there might not of been enough time from the first realisation of a problem (2 hours after when the survivors got out?) to assemble sufficient men and equipment to get in and get out again. The blast causes enourmous particle displacement and visibility is virtually zero and then there is a lot of debris to negotiate in the several km to get inside.

Sadly, not going was the only decision really...