Hopes rise in quest for mine answers
Five robots were sent into the Pike River Mine drift in the days and months after the explosions that killed 29 men.
All of the machines broke down – and only one reached survivor Russell Smith’s loader, which is 1900 metres into the tunnel.
After recovery agency staff recovered two of the robots from the drift, there are hopes not just that the three other robots will come out, but that Pike River Recovery Agency staff will extract the loader too.
The agency is completing the $50 million task of re-entering, and recovering any evidence or bodies that might be found in the 2.3km mine drift, or access tunnel.
In the days after the first explosion in the West Coast mine on November 19, 2010, police sent in four robots in an attempt to find the whereabouts of the 29 men.
On November 23, a Defence Force robot broke down just 550m in after reaching water. On November 24, two robots also broke down in the drift. Later that day, a second explosion rocked the mine, ruling out any possible rescue. A fourth robot, from the US, was sent in but also broke down.
In 2011, a fifth robot failed soon after its entry.
The first was recovered at 530m, and another was found at 748m.
Pike River mum Sonya Rockhouse said the families had had to fight to have access to the footage from the failed remotely-operated robots at the time.
‘‘It showed the robots motoring down the middle of the drift and I remember thinking how clean the drift looked,’’ she said.
‘‘That was one of the reasons we fought for the drift re-entry was because we knew how little damage there was.’’
Her son Ben was killed in the mine, while her other son Daniel survived the blast and rescued Smith. Agency staff will recover both of the vehicles, or loaders, that the men were driving in the mine drift. They sit at roughly 1500m and 1900m.
Rockhouse was pleased with the re-entry progress.
‘‘It’s great. It’s just moving quite quickly now. I’m apprehensive about the loaders coming out. It’s very emotional.
‘‘We always said it could be done and here we are.’’
She said all the items would be handed over to police for forensic examination, and agency staff had been trained on how to handle the items to preserve them as evidence.
Once all the robots were recovered, agency staff would come to Smith’s loader at about 1500m.
‘‘Then we are into unseen territory including the room that contains electrical gear and other evidence,’’ she said.
‘‘This is what we fought for, it’s the chance to get to the truth of what killed the men and boys we loved and hopefully to hold someone accountable for it.’’