Pennsylvania Mine Rescue

[ScubyDoo]

Perhaps this is a question which has already been asked, but I havent seen any threads on this subject.

In the case of the mine in Penn. which flooded after miners accidentally opened an old flooded mine. Why didnt they attempt to rescue them with rescue divers. Surely there was access to these miners via flooded tunnels. As I understand it there wasn't any tunnel collapses. Just curious?

 

[NINman]

From what I read on MSNBC was that they thought it was risky having divers go though a tunnel that was about 1 mile long and filled with debries from the flood. Also I would think the vis would not have been the greatest either as it was a coal mine.

 

[TCDiver1]

Originally posted by NINman
From what I read on MSNBC was that they thought it was risky having divers go though a tunnel that was about 1 mile long and filled with debries from the flood. Also I would think the vis would not have been the greatest either as it was a coal mine.

That's what i heard too, talk about extreme tech diving!

 

[JamesK]

These are simply guesses, but here goes.

1) Depth. At 240ft, everyone would build up huge deco obligations. This would be a mixed gas dive.

2) You would need a team of atleast 9 divers to go in and bring out the 9 miners. That means you would have to take in over twice as much gas as normal. these would already be dives that you would have many bottles to carry in simply because of the depth and penetration. You might even have to do multiple setup dives to stage extra bottles on the way. This would mean up to three teams of 9 divers each going in to stage emergency bottles along the way.

3) Vis. being a fresh coal mine, I am sure that the water inside the mine was horrible vis. These would be blind dives by the rescue team. Putting them all in extreme danger.

4) This would possibly the first time on scuba for any of these miners. You would have to have the rescue divers not only monitor the health of the miner, but also try to drag the miner out. Unless you brought completely independent systems, including wings, you would have to control everything the miner does. If you did bring equipment in, this would be a crash course in the most technical type of cave diving aound. Deep, mixed gas, deco, no vis, touch contact.

In all, it simply would not be safe, and would put everyones life in jeopardy. It would have turned into a huge recovery instead of a rescue.

 

[Rockhound]

that such an attempt would have been extremely risky. A one mile penetration in blackwater, with the possibility of active roof falls as water penetrated and weakened the roof would make such an endeavour much too risky.

However the water column, as I am now learning, was only about 30-40 feet (that's probably why the miners weren't decompressed and why only one of them got slightly bent after 70+ hrs. under pressure.) So, I don't think depth would have been a problem.

The miners were at a subsurface depth of 240', but the water only came up to around 200 or so, which is likely the height of the water table perched in the other mine after the breakthrough and after the water reached its new level. (the old flooded mine system).

 

[raviepoo]

Originally posted by Rockhound
[B.........

However the water column, as I am now learning, was only about 30-40 feet (that's probably why the miners weren't decompressed and why only one of them got slightly bent after 70+ hrs. under pressure.) So, I don't think depth would have been a problem.......

[/B]

They were 240 feet below surface and they were breathing compressed air pumped down from the surface. Wouldn't they be under 8 pressures of atmosphere even though there weren't fully submerged in water??? How did they escape without getting bent? What is it that I am missing here?

 

[k4sdi]

Open water lesson #1
Water is denser than air

Mark

 

[ScubyDoo]

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I didnt realize the tunnel from the entry to the divers location was so far. I did consider the depth of 240 feet to be a huge obstacle, though I was never aware if the water column was actually that deep. I hadnt considered the likelihood of very poor visibility, which Im sure it was. I noticed in some of the news coverage that one of the men close to the rescue holes was wearing a rescue diver t-shirt, so I felt sure that it was an option that was considered but not used. I was just curious what the reasons were, and thanks to everyone's responses.....now I know. Thanks!