According to the Associated Press, Massey board director Stanley Suboleski said that a foreman did an exam of levels “tens of minutes” before the blast that occurred shortly after 3pm that day at the southern West Virginia operation. The air flow during that check was also reported to be fine.

"All the indicators are that at the start of the shift, everything was OK," Suboleski said.

The Appalachian producer opted to hold a news conference to respond to claims about the explosion, the cause of which is still being determined. The AP noted that high levels of two potentially explosive gases had been found within the mine, but it could be a month before investigators returned underground to determine the explosion’s direct cause.

“We are fully dedicated to figuring out what happened if humanly possible to do so,” Massey chairman Don Blankenship said at the conference, and acknowledged that the company owed it to the families as well as the industry and the public to put forth the best efforts to find cause.

“It is critical that we find out the facts so that all Massey and industry coal miners can work without fear of another explosion. Once the facts are known, we will enact corrective processes at Massey immediately and encourage regulation and laws focused on eliminating the chance of a reoccurrence.”

Massey director General Robert “Doc” Foglesong said the company’s primary consideration was to provide care for the families of the 29 fallen.

“[The company] is providing these benefits without requiring any family to settle any legal issues – we’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do,” he said.

Lead independent director Admiral Bobby Inman spoke about the growing discontent with Blankenship’s leadership; the CEO is facing lawsuits as well as calls from shareholders to resign.

“Some have called for immediately changing our leadership … making changes in the midst of a crisis is exceptionally high risk for all stakeholders,” he said.

“When the crisis has subsided and we know the facts, we will maintain the highest standard of accountability and responsibility.”

Suboleski added that Massey was continuing to cooperate with state and federal investigations into the blast and made some technical points about the operation at the time of the incident, most notably that the Raleigh County operation’s longwall was not operating with the same ventilation system as it began production with last September.

“MSHA [the US Mine Safety and Health Administration] required us to change that system and we complied,” he said.

“Recognizing that professionals can reasonably disagree on the best method of ventilation at a mine, we have discovered the following: 1) that MSHA required several changes since that date that made the ventilation in this area significantly more complex; 2) that the volume of fresh air to the face was significantly reduced during this period; and 3) that our engineers resisted making the changes, in one instance to the point of shutting down production for two days, before agreeing to MSHA’s ventilation plan changes.”

The 200-worker Upper Big Branch South mine, which has one longwall and five active miner sections and extracts from the Eagle seam, has been idled indefinitely. The mine is operated by Massey division Performance Coal.

Keep reading International Longwall News for more details and information about the Upper Big Branch operation, explosion, and the investigation into cause.