Relatives of trapped Utah miners denounce mine owner, safety officials

Olsen called for the drilling of a 36-inch wide hole through which a rescue capsule could be lowered. The hope was that the capsule could be used to extract the miners, or at least recover their bodies.

He denounced mine owner Robert Murray, Murray Energy Vice President Robert Moore and Robert Stickler, the director of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), for giving up on the families’ loved ones. The families’ statement followed a press conference earlier in the day in which Moore and Stickler said the miners were most likely dead and suggested that their bodies might never be recovered.

Moore added that the company was considering resuming mining in other parts of the mine, away from the section where the cave-in trapped the six miners on August 6.

Olsen pointed out that the families had heard nothing from mine owner Murray since Thursday, when three mine rescuers were killed in a second collapse. Since then, company and government officials have suspended any further efforts to tunnel to the site where they believe the trapped miners to be.