By Mike Tony
Charleston Gazette-Mail
The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration has told the Gazette-Mail it did not use a monitoring device that can aid emergency search and rescue opera-tions in its response to try to save a mine worker who died after officials say his Nicholas County mine was inundated with water last month.
The MSHA decision not to use a seismograph has perplexed miner safety ad-vocates who expected the agency would have given that option more consider-ation in its effort to rescue section foreman Steve Lipscomb, 42, of Elkview.
Lipscomb’s body was recovered at the Alpha Metallurgical Resources Inc.-controlled Rolling Thunder Mine in the Swiss area of Nicholas County on Nov. 13 after a 113-hour underground search mission that gripped West Virginians hoping for a different outcome.
The other 17 miners in Lipscomb’s crew were accounted for following the incident, according to officials.
Read the rest of the story at the Charleston Gazette-Mail