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July 30, 2002
SOMERSET, Pa. -- Five of the nine miners rescued after 77 hours thanked the public on Monday for supporting them throughout their ordeal, but some said they were disappointed they hadn't been contacted by the mining company that sent them underground.
"I haven't heard from them," said Blaine Mayhugh, 31. "Haven't got a phone call or a visit from them."
A Black Wolf Coal Co. spokesman didn't comment.
The miners recalled their relief when a corned beef sandwich and soda turned up in Dennis Hall's lunch box.
"One guy took a bite and passed it around," said Thomas Foy, 51. "I figured we were good for another couple days."
Some won't being going back underground.
"I don't know if too many of us will go back to what we did do," said Randy Fogle, 43. "It put our families through a lot. It was hard on us, and it was I think harder on them."
But the 48-year-old Hall, who has been mining for 30 years, is going back to work. "It's inevitable. Everybody's got to work," he said. "I love my job."
On Monday, hundreds of other miners pulled on their blue coveralls and hard hats and went back to work. Carrying their lunches in plastic bags and lugging along water in plastic milk jugs, they boarded small, motorized vehicles and headed underground.
Most of a nearby mine's 55 coal workers returned to work, to the surprise of foreman Craig Hamilton. "I was afraid a lot of them might not show up and just say, "The heck with it,' " he said.
Gov. Mark Schweiker said Monday that a special state commission will examine mine safety. Richard Stickler, director of the state Bureau of Deep Mine Safety, said incorrect maps will be a key focus.
A retired miner, Joseph Jashienski, 89, said the map used by the rescued miners was wrong because of improper mining techniques used in the adjoining mine the day before it was abandoned.
Jashienski said the Saxman Coal and Coke Co. gathered all the coal it could that day by using a machine to carve out a space in the shape of a baseball diamond, but the now-deceased superintendent who made the map left that detail out.
"If you put on the map that you made a ballfield, the state inspector is going to wonder what you are doing," Jashienski said.
Scott Roberts, the head of the mineral resource management division of the state Department of Environmental Protection, said he wasn't aware of Jashienski's claim but said it sounded valid.