RELATIVES of miners missing after an underground explosion in West Virginia were told they were alive – only to have their hopes dashed three hours later when it was discovered that only one of 13 men survived.
Ben Hatfield, the chief executive of the International Coal Group, the mine's owners, said a "miscommunication" from inside the mine to the command centre was overheard and spread to the relatives, gathered in a church.
He said it occurred when a rescue team found 12 miners barricaded in a section of the mine. They said they were checking the miners' vital signs. But in the command centre three kilometres away this became they had found 12 survivors. In fact only one miner, Randal McCloy, was alive.
He was taken to hospital on a ventilator in a critical condition.
What turned out to be false euphoria quickly spread. The church bells started ringing.
"The initial report from the rescue team to the command centre indicated multiple survivors, but that information proved to be a miscommunication," Mr Hatfield said.
He denied the company had confirmed the initial report and said he did not want to assign blame to the rescue team.
Mr Hatfield said he became aware 20 minutes after the news the 12 miners were alive went out that it was not accurate. The company had then waited until it could determine which of the miners were dead or alive to tell the families their fate.
Someone yelled: "They're alive, they're alive!"
West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin yelled to the media the slogan he had adopted since the beginning: "Believe in miracles." Later, at a news conference, Mr Manchin avoided placing responsibility for the "miscommunication" but said he got "caught up in the euphoria".
He said he had been in the Sago Baptist Church in the small West Virginia community where relatives had been waiting for news since the explosion talking to family members when he became of aware of rejoicing that 12 had survived.
He denied that he or his staff had confirmed the report and said he had begun receiving information it was not accurate 20 minutes after the announcement.
Everyone believed that against the odds, the miners, trapped for 40 hours three kilometres underground, had been found alive after an explosion.
"Miracles happen in West Virginia and today we got one," said Charlotte Weaver, wife of Jack Weaver, wife of one of the trapped men. "I got scared a lot of times, but I couldn't give up. We have an 11-year-old son, and I couldn't go home and tell him daddy wasn't coming home."
When the truth emerged three hours later, families reacted angrily. They yelled "hypocrites" and "liars" at mine company representatives. After hours of believing their relatives were alive they left the church in tears.
About three hours before the report that 12 miners had survived, rescue crews had found one body. It appeared he had been working on a conveyor belt, Mr Hatfield said. But the news had also been accompanied by a ray of hope. About 200 metres away rescue workers had found the vehicle that had carried the crew underground.
This raised hopes they had escaped the blast and might have found a haven from the carbon monoxide.
