Mine operator blamed for deadly explosion

US regulators, in a report, blamed an underground coal mine explosion that killed 29 miners in West Virginia two years ago on the mine's operator. The Mine Safety and Health Administration said in a 308-page report Tuesday federal mine inspectors failed to evaluate some parts of the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, including areas affected by the April 2010 explosion, but did not blame the inspectors for the blast, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. The report said mine operator Massey Energy racked up nearly 700 violations in the year and a half before the fatal explosion, including eight that could have been considered "flagrant," the newspaper said. The coal company falsified records and concealed problems that would have led inspectors to take action, the report said. "The internal review team is confident that District 4 inspectors would have cited these violations if they had observed them," said George Fesak, who led the investigation. But the report said inspectors had not enforced penalties against Massey Energy for the most serious violations, identify dangerous accumulations of combustible coal dust, address roof deficiencies, check the calibration of gas detectors or effectively review the mine's record books. The report also said mine supervisors, who were supposed to review citations and inspection notes daily, sometimes waited 28 days or more and that, in turn, delayed corrective action. "I don't think there's any question that MSHA could have done better. I don't think there's any question that we surely plan to do better in the future," said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. "We hold ourselves accountable for the findings."