Pike River Mine disaster
Updated: Wikipedia source
The Pike River Mine disaster was a coal mining accident that began on 19 November 2010 in the Pike River Mine, 46 km (29 mi) northeast of Greymouth, in the West Coast region of New Zealand's South Island following a methane explosion at approximately 3:44 pm (NZDT, UTC+13). The accident resulted in the deaths of 29 miners. At the time of the initial explosion on 19 November, 31 miners and contractors were below ground. 16 miners and 13 contractors were believed to be located at least 1.5 km (1,600 yd) from the mine's entrance, while two miners managed to walk from the mine and were treated for moderate injuries. Subsequent explosions on 24, 26 and 28 November ended any hopes of any further survivors and raised serious doubt that any bodies would ever be recovered. In December 2012, then-Prime Minister John Key said he would apologise in person to the families of those killed for the Government's weak regulations and inadequate inspection regime. In 2017, the Government established the Pike River Recovery Agency, with re-entry expected by March 2019. It reported to the Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry, Andrew Little. Re-entry was expected to cost $23 million NZD over three years. In February 2021, the Agency reported that it had reached a point 2.2 km up the mine access tunnel, the furthest point into the mine that the agency planned to go. The work to this point had cost approximately $50 million. In March 2021, Little stated that it was too difficult and too expensive to go any further into the mine. The Pike River Mine incident ranks as New Zealand's worst mining disaster since 1914, when 43 men died at Ralph's Mine in Huntly. It also resulted in the country's worst loss of life caused by a single disaster since the 1979 crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901, although it was surpassed three months later by the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake. The accident led to significant changes in occupational safety legislation, with the passage of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and the establishment of WorkSafe New Zealand.