Pike River: Exploring the 'latest' footage and issues surrounding the mine

Friday, 23 June 2017

Day after day, week after week, the Pike River headlines keep appearing. The bodies of 29 men are still in the mine and families are still fighting to bring them out. But what - if anything - has changed since their struggle began?

It's hard to work out whether the public is actually being told anything new.

Among the most dramatic recent developments was the emergence of footage at the end of April that showed a robot in the mine. It was reported the footage - recorded in 2011 - had been kept from families, but police said that was incorrect.

Then, a week ago, more six-year-old footage was publicised. It showed the scene in the mine at the bottom of a hole - known as borehole 44 - drilled down from the surface. Wooden pallets and rubber hoses appeared undamaged.

**READ MORE:

* New video from deep inside mine**

* **Families granted leave for Supreme Court appeal

* Short notice for families before footage made public

* Pike River mum: 'What we wanted was, and still is, simple'**

It seems clear there is a strategy to try to ensure the November 19, 2010 disaster does not fade into the background.

What has happened relatively recently to keep the tragedy before the public?

In November 2016, there were protests on the road to the mine, stopping workers who were supposed to seal it up. The protests continued for some months.

In February, writer Dame Fiona Kidman presented a petition to Parliament's commerce committee, asking that Solid Energy be stopped from sealing the mine 'and that the remains of the 29 men be brought home if humanly possible'.

In late-April 2017, footage allegedly leaked to the families of the dead men was also provided to news outlets. The footage was date-stamped March 15, 2011. It showed a robot getting 1570 metres along the drift - the tunnel leading into the mine. At one point, it also showed two men accompanying the robot.

In recent days, families of the workers were granted a Supreme Court hearing to challenge a decision of the Court of Appeal, which had rejected an application for a judicial review of the decision to drop charges against former Pike River boss Peter Whittall.

Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton died in the explosion, said this week footage taken in the months after the explosion showed intact bodies in the mine. Footage broadcast this week from 2011 - not that showing what is thought to be bodies - appeared to show no sign of underground fire in an area inside the mine at the bottom of borehole 44. 

What do the families want?

Sonya Rockhouse, who lost her 21-year-old son Ben in the disaster, said the goal was for people to be able to re-enter and go along the length of the drift - the main access tunnel into the mine. It was possible there were bodies at the opposite end of the drift from the entrance. The hope was that any bodies in the drift could be retrieved, along with any evidence about the explosion.

Bernie Monk, whose 23-year-old son Michael died in the mine, said a small number of family members did not want the remains retrieved. 'That's why I have always said I only represent some of the families.'

He is certain the mine was not damaged to the extent the Government and Solid Energy had said it was. Experts from around the world were saying it was safe to re-enter the mine, but the Government and Solid Energy were opposed, Monk said.

What is the strategy?

Rockhouse said the aim was to make the public aware of the issue. To achieve that, the families had enlisted professional help.

'If you bombard people with a lot of information - I'm the same, I hear the first thing said and don't hear much after that,' she said.

'We want people to understand what we want, and what has happened and what has been said. That's where the drip-feeding comes from.'

While there was a strategy, the timing around the election was coincidental, she said.

Was the footage released in April and this week publicly available before? 

According to a Newshub report this week, the April footage had been kept from families. However, police have since released a statement saying some footage from the March 15, 2011 robot entry had been shown to families at meetings on July 23 and 24, 2011 in Greymouth and Christchurch. Those meetings were attended by about 25 direct family members.

That included footage of the two workers wearing breathing apparatus in the air-lock at the entrance to the drift with the robot, police said. They also confirmed the entire video from the robot was released by police to the Royal Commission of Inquiry in August 2011.

Solid Energy said that at the time the footage was filmed, the drift was filled with nitrogen - so the fact no fire was triggered when the robot malfunctioned doesn't mean there aren't risks associated with the drift now being filled with methane.

'We also note that the workers shown in the drift are in the first few metres and this is very different to the risks associated with being deep into the drift. You cannot assert from this footage that this shows that re-entry could be safely undertaken.'

Speaking to Radio NZ, the lawyer representing families at the royal commission, Richard Raymond QC, said he had been told extracts of the robot's exploration shown to the families had not included the footage showing the workers in the drift.

Police had offered to show the families all the robotic video footage but also said the unviewed footage did not show anything different to the extracts that had already been seen. On that basis, the families did not view the extra footage, Raymond said.

Footage of the men inside the drift had not been shown to families, Monk said. 'All we have seen is the men going into the container (at the entrance to the drift).' There had also been footage of people going in and out of the mine without any problem. Much of the footage highlighted recently had not been seen before, he said.

'We needed to get them out to prove to people … that don't understand what the fight is about.'

When police showed families the footage before it was 'always rush, rush, rush', Monk said. 'When you start going through it with a fine-tooth comb, things start to appear.'

Rockhouse said the footage of borehole 44 and footage showing bodies was among material provided by police after an Official Information Act request. It was provided in three stages, the latest being three to four weeks ago. 

On Wednesday, police said all video and still images held by them had been supplied to the families.

Transcripts from the royal commission show footage from borehole 44 was discussed at the hearing, including the fact it seemed to show far less damage than expected. That was said to make it clear that part of the mine was not destroyed.

Footage of the robot going up the drift was leaked to the families, Rockhouse said. She would not say who provided it, but noted there was similar footage in the material since handed over by police.

Police said they were not investigating how the families obtained the robot footage, 'as we have no reason to believe the supply of the footage to Newshub was unlawful'.

Is it clear how many bodies can be seen in the footage?

Rockhouse said two bodies could be clearly seen in footage from two boreholes - but not borehole 44. Footage possibly showed another two to four bodies, but not nearly as clearly as the other two.

One body had been known about for a long time, she said.

It was reported in 2011 that footage shown to the royal commission appeared to show two bodies inside the mine.

Such footage has not been broadcast publicly, but Newshub reporter Lloyd Burr said he had seen footage of what appeared to be a body in the mine. It was grainy with limited light. The only way to confirm bodies were intact would be to lower high-definition cameras down the boreholes, along with better lighting, he said.

How far have people gone into the mine since the explosions?

Soon after the explosions, two shipping containers were plugged into the mine entrance and covered in a type of concrete.

In July 2011, Mines Rescue Trust finished building a temporary seal 170m along the tunnel and erected double steel doors at the mine's entrance to control gasses.

At the time, workers walked 300m along the tunnel and pinned a poignant note to the dead miners telling them they would return to get them out.

How did things get to this distressing point?

Solid Energy bought the assets of Pike River Coal - then in receivership - in July 2012. As part of that, it entered into agreements with the Government setting out responsibilities around recovery of the bodies of the 29 men. 

In November 2014, Solid Energy announced it would not be continuing with the project to re-enter the drift. In a statement, the company said it had been unable to reach a level of confidence that any re-entry plan could adequately protect the lives of those undertaking the work.

Solid Energy decided the safest course would be to seal the drift and hand over responsibility to the Department of Conservation.

By November 2016, Solid Energy had finished the first stage of sealing the mine, putting a 'type c' seal in place, which aims to hold methane inside and exclude air from the mine. 

The next step would have been to construct a thicker, stronger seal, providing a more robust barrier against potential pressure surges in the mine. That seal would be designed to be technically reversible, by agreement with the family members.

On February 15, 2017 members of the Pike River families met with Prime Minister Bill English. After which, English said the Government would ask Solid Energy to stop work on the permanent seal, and explore options for re-entry using unmanned technology.

Solid Energy told the commerce committee work on the permanent seal had stopped following this request.

What are the chances of getting into the mine?

Solid Energy said it was making 'good progress' on plans to carry out an unmanned exploration of the mine.  A preferred option of a robot capable of going down a borehole, unfolding and then moving around, had been identified. With four robots already abandoned down the mine, the company needed to ensure the right technology was used to do the job properly, chief executive Tony King said.

It was estimated that completing the necessary robot modification and planning and preparation of boreholes would need at least three to four months once the re-entry plan was signed off.

What about humans going in?

King this week repeated his company's position that it was unsafe for people to go back into the mine. The lack of damage evident in the video footage of borehole 44 - released this week by the families - was consistent with what would be expected. 'The inner parts of the mine would be oxygen deficient and there would have been no air current to draw the fire into those areas,' King said.

In contrast, former chief inspector of mines Tony Forster told the commerce committee he had concluded re-entry of the drift could be done safely. He supported a new re-entry plan produced by experts for the families. Technical advisers to the families remained convinced risks could be satisfactorily controlled to allow safe recovery of the drift.

Forster told the committee the potential for there to be human remains in the drift was an important consideration of the re-entry plans.