New Pike footage shows urgent need for drift recovery – Stand with Pike

Footage from inside Pike River mine released tonight shows there is an urgent need for answers say Pike River families.

Sonya Rockhouse who lost her son, Ben, in the mine says the footage – which includes images of spectacles likely to be Ben’s – raises serious questions about the Government’s refusal to recover the drift and any evidence it holds.

“New Zealand has been told there’s nothing but ashes and dust down there, they’ve been told that the drift can’t be made safe to enter and investigate. That’s just not true, my boy is down there and if pallets and paper are intact then so is his body.

“The Government has had this footage for six years but they kept it from us until we made it impossible for them to keep it hidden away. If it had been released to us and to New Zealand all those years ago we would have got into the drift by now and would have answers and some accountability.

“Bill English has tried to keep us quiet with the promise of getting cameras into the drift, but in the five months since that promise has been made all that has happened is a couple of meetings and a vague suggestion it might happen by November. It feels like they’re more interested in making this go away until after the election than in getting answers.

“The experts say that the drift can be made safe for manned entry and that that’s what’s needed to recover evidence and any remains in there. I want to know why the government won’t listen to them and just do this.

“Bill English needs to stop trying to hide from this. He needs to do the right thing. He needs to let our experts work with mines rescue to enter the drift and find out what happened down there. We need answers. We deserve answers.”