While the Murray Energy mining company has withheld the names of the six trapped Utah miners, AP has confirmed four: Carlos Payan, Don Erickson, Kerry Allred and Manuel Sanchez. If you are reading this story and you have the names of the other two miners, pictures of all six or links, please leave comments below. We will share them with the world community. In the mean time this is what we know right now.LATEST UPDATE: So far, there has been no response after a"drill steel" was pounded to see if any of the six miners could or would respond to the sound. Within two feet of the projected area, a camera used to scan the area captured some images from a vertical view. Survivorable space was discovered, but still no indication of the status of the men.
MORE: By Garance Burke, (AP)
HUNTINGTON, Utah - A second drill broke through to a mine shaft early Saturday and a video camera was lowered inside, searching for the fate of six miners believed to be trapped nearly 2,000 feet below.
"I don't know if it's all the way to the bottom or not," said John Baza, director of Utah's Division of Oil, Gas and Mining. Rescuers hoped to obtain some video to show the miners' families who have been anxiously awaiting any sign of their loved ones since the Crandall Canyon mine collapsed early Monday.
"We may not get a full view," said Bob Murray, chief of mine co-owner Murray Energy Corp. "There may be rubble in there ... and the camera may not see very far." A microphone lowered into a smaller hole on Friday yielded no sounds of life and an air sample taken through the 2 1/2-inch hole detected little oxygen. Officials still remained hopeful that the men were somehow still alive.The uncle of one trapped miner said the families were given a brief update of the rescue efforts but received little new information from the mining company. Tomas Hernandez said they were only told work was progressing. Murray said the camera could scan 300 feet in all directions, but the miners could be anywhere in a vast cavity 1,300 feet long by 500 feet wide.
FROM FRIDAY: If the six trapped miners are alive, they may be sitting in inky darkness, their headlamps having burned out. Wearing thin work clothes in the 58-degree cold, they could be chilled to the bone if water is seeping into their chamber 150 stories below ground. How much air they might have is any one's guess.
On Thursday, more than three days after the thunderous cave-in, a drilling rig on the mountain above the Crandall Canyon mine closed in on the men, trying to bore a hole a mere 2 1/2 inches wide to bring them air and lower a two-way communications device and a tiny camera to check for signs of life. "We may get no noise," cautioned Bob Murray, part owner of the mine. "They may be dead."
The drilling rig was erected 1,869 feet above the presumed location of the men and had drilled down 1,530 feet by late morning. The earliest estimated breakthrough time, 7 p.m. EDT, passed with no word from mine officials.Our prayers continue!