A Westport man who spent 30 years as a mine rescuer says he would have been prepared to re-enter the Pike River Coal mine drift with mines rescue.
Solid Energy yesterday announced it had abandoned its mine re-entry project because the risk to life remained too high. The Government said the mine would be converted into conservation land and preserved as a memorial.
Gary Bainbridge said he believed the Mines Rescue Service, that re-entry could be achieved.
"I know mines rescue had a plan and it was a good one. I would have gone with them. But I know if there's any risk these days corporates won't have a bar of it. It's the world we live in."
Mr Bainbridge, a former Solid Energy employee, retired in 2012 after spending most of his life working in coal mines.
In November 2010, he and two Stockton mine colleagues had just finished taking gas samples from a Pike mineshaft when a second explosion ripped through the mine. It shattered hopes any of the 29 men trapped underground six days earlier could have survived.
Mr Bainbridge told The News at the time that they heard what sounded like a huge jet coming. They ran for their lives as an "enormous boom" blasted smoke from the two vents, blotting out the sky.
He does not support those who believe a rescue should have been mounted immediately after the first explosion.
"You can't go unless you've got information. They didn't know what they were dealing with. That would have been just foolhardy."
It was now time to move on, rather than looking for someone to blame, Mr Bainbridge said. Rebecca MacFie's book Tragedy at Pike River had spelled out who was responsible.
The book blamed Pike River Coal for putting profit before safety and Department of Labour inspectors for failing to close down a mine which had no second escape route. The Royal Commission into the disaster reached the same conclusions.
Prime Minister John Key said yesterday that if Crown Law found civil proceedings could be brought against culpable parties, the Government would fund the proceedings.
Mr Bainbridge was sceptical, considering that the Government's Labour Department inspectors had allowed the mine to continue. "How do you prosecute yourself?" he said.
Mines rescue general manager Trevor Watts told Campbell Live last night that the organisation had always believed drift recovery was achievable.
"At no point would we have allowed our men to enter that mine if we felt there was an unacceptable risk to them."
Nor would mines rescuers - themselves experienced miners - have put themselves at risk, he said.
Mines rescue recognised the difference between a rescue associated with an emergency and the contract work it would have been undertaking for Solid Energy, if re-entry had proceeded.
"We also acknowledge that it was a failure to manage risk that has ultimately led us to where we are today and the failure of the Pike River Coal Mine Company to manage risk has ultimately led to the deaths of 29 men."
Mines rescue had received worldwide offers of support for re-entry, including from Australian mines rescue, Mr Watts said.
While mines rescue had confidence the re-entry plan signed off in 2013 was achievable, it respected that Solid Energy had had to make a difficult decision.
He hoped the decision would bring some closure to families and everyone could now move on.
- Lee Scanlon of the Westport News
