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Updated: 7:47 PM- Rescuers have come within 139 feet of where they believe six miners are trapped inside the Crandall Canyon mine, which caved in four days ago.
As of 6:07 p.m. Thursday, officials drilling a 2 -inch hole to establish communication with the trapped miners had surpassed 1,730 feet, said Richard Stickler, head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. A larger 8 5/8-inch hole - big enough to lower oxygen, water and food - was at 720 feet.
Officials are still unaware of the condition of the miners who have been trapped in the Huntington mine since early Monday.
"We have a common goal here. To rescue these miners," Strickler said during a 6:30 p.m. news conference at the mine.
After completing the 2 -inch hole, officials will lower lights and listening devices to open lines of communication between the trapped miners and the outside world, Strickler said. Officials also hope to learn whether any of the trapped miners are injured or dead.
The 2 -inch hole is advancing at a rate of 20 to 30 feet per hour, Stickler said, but he refused to estimate when the hole would reach the mine below.
Without interruptions, the hole may be completed in the next 4 to 7 hours
Once the hoped-for cavity is breached, it will take two hours to remove the drill and drop down communication devices, said Rob Moore, vice president of Murray Energy Corp., the parent company of Utah-American Energy Inc., which owns Crandall Canyon mine.
But Moore warns that it's possible the drilling effort may not be successful in contacting the miners.
"As the 2 -inch hole gets close to hitting the void, there is the possibility that we may not learn anything conclusive, because it may be in an area where the miners cannot get to," Moore said.
"We are hopeful that we will hit the void and that the miners are able to go to the two-way communication devices," he said.
Gov. Jon Huntsman said a C-17 cargo plane carrying a truck with high-resolution camera equipment is en route to the Salt Lake City International Airport from Mississippi.
The plane was scheduled to arrive in Salt Lake City about 8:30 p.m. and will be escorted by Utah Highway Patrol to the mine. It is expected to arrive late tonight or early Friday.
The 8 5/8-inch drill was expected to reach its target by late Friday, said Robert Murray, chairman of Murray Energy Corp.
Crews digging in the caved-in mine to reach the miners have progressed 280 feet as of 6:07 p.m., Sticker said.
In the meantime, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, said from the mine site that a congressional investigation into the disaster can be expected.
"I think that's a likely possibility. I have not talked to anybody about this. After [the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration] is done with its investigation, Congress will be interested.
"[MSHA] will find out what happened," Matheson added. "All the questions that need to be asked about what happened in this mine will be answered."
Murray has said it likely will be a week before rescuers can extract enough rubble from inside the mine to remove the six men, identified as Manuel Sanchez, Kerry Allred, Don Erickson, Brandon Phillips, Carlos Payan and Luis Hernandez. Murray said rescuers in the mine remain about 1,600 feet from those trapped.
Murray said he left the mine about midnight then returned and gave a series of interviews today to nationally-televised morning shows. At the end of one interview with CNN anchor John Roberts, Murray said the mine was in accordance with plans approved by federal regulators and "they have found no violations in that mine in any way."
Roberts pointed out about 300 other violations had been found at the mine. The sometimes testy Murray became angry that Roberts raised the issue of prior safety violations at the Crandall Canyon mine then did not give him a chance to address the violations.
After the interview, Murray removed his microphone and said: "John Roberts: Asshole. Tell him I said that."
He then told CNN personnel at the mine he should not have said that and he would be willing to give an interview to another CNN reporter.
In an e-mail later in the day, Roberts said CNN allowed Murray to tape a response to the violations issue and CNN played it later in the day.
Though buoyed by progress in the rescue effort, Murray acknowledged that the men may have died when the walls of the mine gave way just before 3 a.m. Monday.
"The concussion from the seismic activity may have instantly killed them and that's in the hands of the Lord," he said. "We will get to them as rapidly as we can."
Murray has insisted that an earthquake triggered Monday's collapse at the Crandall Canyon mine, but local and regional seismologists continue to agree that the cave-in itself caused a seismic event that registered a magnitude 3.9, and was not an earthquake despite Murray's insistence that a quake caused the mine to collapse.
A new analysis released Wednesday by the Berkeley Seismological Laboratory concluded that seismic event was "consistent with the collapse of an underground cavity."
Stickler said the Crandall mine is in compliance with the federal Mine Health and Safety Act, and had the oxygen and other provisions throughout the mine as required in its emergency plan filed with the agency in June.
His agency has held off using seismic monitoring equipment that could elicit a response from survivors because it would require shutting down the drills, whose mission is more vital, he said.