Police to drill 10 new boreholes at pike river

[C_T_Russell]

In my opinion the police should never have been in charge when Pike exploded and stopping a rescue attempt, they have no experience in that sort of thing and had they let the experts do their thing , imagine how many lives could have been saved, so how about the police investigate themselves before drilling holes.

I tend to agree with that; I'd hate to think that any were still alive at the time of that second explosion.

Agreed, imagine how the families feel knowing they had no chance of rescue.

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I believe it was en election promise by labour (and NZF) iirc.
Anywway, I think it was good that they at least made an effort, but at the same time, much money was spent with little success into finding any cause of the explosion.
Other experts believe that access deeper into the mine was possible, but the biggest cost was H&S it appears.
Would be good if they could have gone further into the mine, not only to recover bodies, but also discover any evidence.

This whole mine disaster appears to be a coverup, and the govt was at least partly responsible at the time to have allowed this mine to operate in an unsafe manner.

I hope the boreholes discover more.
What really upsets me the most is how the rescue crews were prevented from entering the mine to start a rescue operation, its still possible that some survivors were inside waiting for a rescue.
I really feel for the families who still dont have any closure, it must be distressing.

you're not wrong on any of that, it was a bit of a disaster from any angle you look at it...  Ultimately though if someone died during a rescue attempt then the government would get the blame for that too, I guess they have to weigh up the (political) risk as well...

Thats why there needs to be some sort of provision in law to make such attempts exempt from liability in these extreme cases.
IIRC, there was a similar mine disaster in Australia where rescuers entered the mine and died from a second explosion, but the circumstances were different.
They interviewed mine experts on the TV and they all said that in these cases the window for re-entry is narrow and the risk of another explosion increases over time as more oxygen makes it back into the mine.
The rescue team wanted to enter the mine ASAP after the first explosion, but the police prevented them.
As it turns out the police were taking orders from the pike river management telling them it was unsafe. This was the big mistake made.
The mine rescue team should be allowed to make their own independent decisions based on their skills and judgement.