Technology has come a long way in improving mine and miners' safety. But despite advances, accidents - due to human error and numerous hazards - continue to occur, often with tragic consequences.
A Look at Mines and Technologies That Help Them Deal With Disasters
- By Aida Akl
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Aerial view of a mudslide which trapped 12 men inside a collapsed magnesium silicate mine in Lassing, south-west of Vienna, Austria, July 18, 1998. Eleven men, one of them a geologist, became trapped when they went down the mine to try to rescue a colleague trapped by an earlier mudslide. (Reuters)
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Georg Hainzl is brought to a hospital inside a pressure chamber, July 26, 1998. Hainzl, who had been trapped in a collapsed mine in the village of Lassing, Austria, for 10 days, was pulled out from 60 meters underground in remarkably good health. (Reuters)
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Miners transport cables to ensure electric power supply at the entrance of the Jiaojiazhai coal mine in Xinzhou, north China's Shanxi province, where 19 miners died in a gas blast, Nov. 8, 2006. (Reuters)
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A miner, who is part of a rescue team, clutches his breathing apparatus as he prepares to enter the Sago Mine in Tallmansville, West Virginia, Jan. 3, 2006. Treacherous conditions, including the presence of poisonous gas, slowed efforts to rescue 13 trapped coal miners. (Reuters)
