High-Tech Video Camera Dropped into Utah Mine

Officials remain hopeful that the six men trapped in the mine are still alive.

Rescuers work near a mine shaft at the Crandall Canyon Mine. Photo courtesy: State of Utah

(HUNTINGTON, Utah) - Rescuers hope to get a look today inside the Crandall Canyon Mine chamber in which six trapped miners have been since early Monday.

The 8 5/8-inch drill bit reached the chamber at 5:15 AM EDT this morning, and workers pulled out the drill pipe.

At 9:47 AM EDT, crews began lowering down a high-resolution camera that will allow them to look out for about 100 feet in 360 degrees.

The bigger hole will also allow them to drop food and water to the miners.

“We may learn something, and we may not,” said Robert Murray, who heads the company that operates the mine.

At 10:41 AM EDT, the camera reached the top of the coal seam.

Officials with the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration and Murray Energy Corp. said Friday they were disappointed that a smaller drill that punched through Friday yielded no information about the miners’ fates and then revealed that oxygen levels originally believed to be adequate for life were less than first believed.

However a potentially life-sustaining air flow was detected Saturday.

Murray said the air was blowing as though it was “very windy,” suggesting the collapsed tunnel had not been completely cut off from the mine’s ventilation system, The New York Times reported.