Federal, State Probes Begin in Upper Big Branch Mine

(April 12) -- Federal and state investigators today began a probe of last week's West Virginia coal mine explosion that killed 29 miners in the worst U.S. mining disaster in four decades.

The investigation will focus on determining the source that ignited the explosion. Investigators will also check ventilation inside the mine and test other safety procedures for lapses in protocol.

"We know the fuel was either methane gas or coal dust or both, but what was the ignition source?" said Tony Oppegard, a former federal mine official. "If it was a spark, where did it come from? There are quite a few possibilities."

In Charleston, meanwhile, mourners held a wreath-laying ceremony, attended by U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, at the miner statue at the state Capitol. Gov. Joe Manchin asked for a moment of silence at 3:30 p.m. to honor the fallen miners, and President Barack Obama ordered all U.S. flags in West Virginia to be flown at half-staff.

Recovery workers re-entered the Upper Big Branch mine around 7 a.m. today to retrieve the remaining nine miners' bodies, according to a Mine Safety and Health Administration official. The recovery effort has been stymied by high levels of methane gas inside the mine, which is owned by Massey Energy.

When the mine is deemed safe for investigators to enter, one of their first tasks will be to record the physical evidence collected at the site of the explosion.

"They will map every single Styrofoam cup picked up, every little piece of metal, where the bodies are found, where someone's belt buckle blew off," said Celeste Monforton, a former Mine Safety and Health Administration official who served on a special panel investigating the 2006 mine disaster at Sago, W.Va., that killed 12 men. "They'll map the escape ways, the main entries, where the workers were in those areas at different times."

Monforton said mapping could consume weeks of what could be a yearlong investigation. "This is a very large mine. At one point, the rescuers were five miles in," she said.

The 14-member federal team will be joined by investigators from the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training, which will conduct a separate, parallel inquiry. Both federal and state investigators will interview miners and company officials, as well as scour documents at the mine.

"There is a huge mound of paper associated with running a mine," Monforton said. "Pre-shift examinations, paperwork the foreman has to fill out, training records, every gas reading. All kinds of stuff."

No determination has been made about whether the federal mining administration will conduct a public hearing about the disaster. A decision to hold a public hearing could affect the reach investigators have in conducting interviews with miners and company officials. Usually, interviews are voluntary. But by convening a hearing, investigators would have subpoena power.

Without a public inquiry, the witnesses will be interviewed behind closed doors. Their statements will not be made public until long after the investigation ends.

"It's kind of a strange hybrid," Monforton said. "Interviews are supposed to be voluntary, but at the same time, they're secret. If they're voluntary, then open it up to the public."

The mining agency has held just two public hearings in its history. Only one involved a coal mine accident. Oppegard, who participated in the other one -- involving an explosion at an alumina plant in Louisiana -- and worked as a state prosecutor in mining investigations in Kentucky, said he thinks the chances for a public hearing in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion are "slim."

"MSHA will be able to find the ignition source and the path of the explosion. Their technical experts are very good," he said. "But getting to the bottom of why conditions were allowed to deteriorate to the point that the mine blew up is more difficult. What were the workers in there thinking? What was management thinking? What was MSHA thinking? That's what a public hearing can get to, if it's done properly."