NYT/AP: Trapped Miners' Air Packs Were Not Fully Used, Expert Says

Trapped Miners' Air Packs Were Not Fully Used, Expert Says
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 4, 2006

BUCKHANNON, W.Va. (AP) -- Tests on air packs recovered from the depths of the Sago Mine show that none of the devices had been used to their full capacity before being discarded by the trapped miners, a federal mine safety official Thursday.

Though the devices, known as self-rescuers, activated when the 12 men tried them, the tests revealed that the amount of chemicals used to create oxygen varied widely, from just 25 percent to 75 percent, said John Urosek, a ventilation expert with the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration.

The revelation, during a third day of hearings into the Jan. 2 explosion, triggered angry questions from the son of one of the 11 miners who died during the 41 hours it took rescuers to reach them.

''None of them was used up 100 percent, and that should tell you that ... that's unacceptable,'' said Russell Bennett, the son of Marty Bennett and a coal miner.

It is the job of federal investigators to find out why they were not fully used, he said....

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Mine-Explosion-Hearing.html

for the military...

There's no way anyone is going to convince me that someone would abandon their life saving device if they felt it was still working! Either the device failed BEFORE it used all the chemicals, of something else happened to the device! Damn it! Figure it out!!!!!

and people doubled up on working ones.

The feds tested them all and said they worked FINE. And now this.

And common sense tells me no one would abandon their life saving devise if it was working properly!

I don't GAS how many tests are done on them, or what the resluts show.

"If it doesn't make sense...something is wrong!"