By Rachel Morton
A panel of experts believes they know what caused the explosion in the Pike River coal mine 15 months ago.
The blast killed 29 men, and led to the Pike River Royal Commission which today resumed its task of determining the cause.
The panel of mining experts says they will never know for certain what caused the Pike River mine to explode.
“It is possible that the immediate cause of the explosion may never be known, we will be left with a range of possibilities,” said James Wilding, from the Counsel for the Commission.
So what do they believe is the most likely scenario?
The five experts conclude that where coal had been removed, the mine roof weakened and collapsed.
That released large amounts of trapped methane gas to suddenly flood into the mine.
Meanwhile on the surface, an electrical system was turned back on after repairs.
Somewhere underground a connection sparked - a common enough occurrence - but this time it was disastrous, because the mine had just been flooded with the highly explosive gas following the roof collapse
While the experts believe this is the likely cause, it may never be proved.
The families of the 29 men who died in the explosion say they wanted investigators to drill into that area of the mine, known as the ‘goaf’ to see if there were any bodies and to find out what caused the blast but it never happened.
“If we get down there later and find the goaf hasn't collapsed, then where do things stand?” said Pike families spokesperson Bernie Monk.
A lawyer for Peter Whittall, former CEO of Pike River Coal, said the explosion could have been caused by the miners who died in the blast, a claim which has upset the victims’ families.
“It's possible that one of the men working in the mine that day may have mistakenly taken a contraband item underground, isn't it?” said lawyer Stacey Shortall.
Mr Monk says Ms Shortall is just trying to protect her clients.
“She's trying to put the blame on our guys underground who can't answer her and that really affects me today.”
The experts admit there are many factors which could have contributed to the explosion and without access to the mine they may never know what really happened.
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