A Salt Lake lawyer who has been retained to represent the majority of the families of the trapped miners said he is “very disappointed at the Murray Energy Corporation group, who seems to have given up.” Colin King, of Dewsnup, King and Olsen, also said the families have been promised things that have not come to fruition, specifically the arrival of a larger drill rig.
“We are very suspicious of those statements,” King said. Outside the Desert Edge Christian Chapel in Huntington on Saturday, King told the media he will go to court if Crandall Canyon mine co-owner Bob Murray makes any attempt to seal the mine before recovering the missing miners.
King said he has repeatedly asked the Mine Safety and Health Administration for a copy of their report, which was completed Monday by a panel of mine safety experts from across the country.
“We would like to see for ourselves, and be able to analyze and talk to our own experts,” he said.
He had just come from a briefing during which the families of the six trapped miners — Carlos Payan, Don Erickson, Luis Hernandez, Brandon Phillips, Manuel Sanchez and Kerry Allred — were told the sixth bore hole had not reached a void space in the mine.
“I don’t think I have to say what their reaction is,” King said. “They are very, very, very disappointed, distraught and very frustrated with good reason.”
The families were told they must “consider the possibility that their family members, their brothers and their fathers are not coming out of there.” There was no mention of a seventh hole, and King said the owners of the mine have the ultimate say for the future of the mine.
