Pike River families get first look at mine blast survivor's recovered loader

Thursday, 6 August 2020

Pike River survivor Russell Smith and Pike River family members Sonya Rockhouse and Anna Osborne talk about an important milestone in the drift (mine access tunnel) recovery. (Video first published in August 2020)

A survivor of the Pike River disaster will not return from Australia for the mine recovery’s next major milestone.

Daniel Rockhouse rescued colleague Russell Smith from the access tunnel after the 2010 explosion, which killed 29 other men.

Smith’s loader was towed out on Tuesday night by the Pike River Recovery Agency. It was found 1563 metres up the 2.3-kilometre drift access tunnel.

Rockhouse’s loader will be the next large item recovered from the drift, expected at the end of August. It sits about 1900m up the tunnel, but the Australian-based underground miner won’t be back to see its removal.

The Pike River Recovery Agency has recovered a loader last driven by survivor Russell Smith from 1581m up the Pike River mine drift.

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* Pike River victims' families enter mine drift

“He is really sad about it but, he can’t come home because of the two weeks’ quarantine he would have to do either side of it,” his mother, Sonya Rockhouse, said.

Smith has described the recovered loader as “a lost friend” that saved his life.

Russell Smith with his loader from the explosion inside the Pike River mine.

He was a coal cutter at Pike River and was late for work the day of the explosion. He was driving up the drift in the loader when he was nearly killed by the force of the blast.

Sonya Rockhouse was at Thursday’s event for families. Her other son, Ben, was among the victims.

“Daniel was concerned about how Russell was, seeing it come out. He was on the phone asking lots of questions about how they got it out and what condition it was in,” she said.

Smith said the loader took the force of the blast as he hunkered down behind the door of the vehicle when the explosion and debris ripped past him.

“If I hadn’t been in that [loader], I don’t know what would have happened. I would have been badly injured, maybe killed, but that’s what saved me, tucked behind that door,” he said.

The journey down the Pike River mine drift.

Smith was also delayed entering the mine on the day because the loader was being serviced. He returned it to the person who serviced it because the accelerator was sticking.

“If that hadn’t delayed me, I would have been up a lot further and you wouldn’t be talking to me today.”

Police have taken possession of the loader and it will be retained as part of the ongoing investigation.

The loader’s removal was an important milestone in the recovery efforts, which he hoped would lead to answers, accountability and justice.

Pike River Recovery Agency chief operating officer Dinghy Pattinson said the next big area of interest was Pit Bottom in Stone, where Daniel Rockhouse’s loader sits, as well as electrical equipment, which may hold vital evidence about the cause of the explosions.

“While nearly 1600 metres of the 2300m drift has now been recovered, there is still around 600 metres of roadway in the Pit Bottom in Stone area that will also need to be explored and examined when that area is reached.

“Things have been progressing very well, and we’re hopeful that we might reach Pit Bottom in Stone by the end of August. However, there are a lot of unknowns between then and now.”

The recovery of the loader went smoothly and to plan, Pattinson said. The team spent about 30 hours recovering it.

Pike River widow Anna Osborne said waiting and watching for the loader to come out took her back to the day of the explosion.

“It finally feels like we might be able to get some truth.”

Sonya Rockhouse said reaching the loader vindicated families who had fought for justice for years.

“We were told that it was too dangerous to go into the drift, that there was nothing but ash and that we should put it behind us. Now we know that’s false.

“It’s an intact crime scene, and we were stopped from having it examined for years based on claims that were just not true.”

Police have taken possession of the loader and it will be retained as part of the ongoing investigation.

Pike River father Bernie Monk, who is involved in a private investigation into the disaster said he wanted the evidence handled with extreme care in the hopes of a successful criminal prosecution.

“We have done an extreme amount of work over the past 18 months. One of the things we need is an explosives expert underground. You can take all the pictures you want, but they cannot take the place of the naked eye underground and an expert that knows what to look for,” he said.