PITTSBURGH, June 17 (UPI) -- Federal investigators want a federal judge to force a coal company to turn over documents dealing with a fatal West Virginia mine accident.
The investigators filed a 138-page complaint in federal court that details their theories about the accident.
The filing follows months of correspondence between the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration and Aracoma Coal Co., and also asks a federal judge to force the company to provide documents relevant to MSHA's investigation, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said.
Massey Energy Corp., Aracoma's parent firm, replied in a public statement that MSHA's document requests fall "outside of the scope of MSHA's authority under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. The company denies allegations that it has interfered with MSHA's investigation."
The Jan. 19 mine fire at Aracoma's Alma No. 1 Mine erupted along a conveyor belt that carries coal to the surface. A crew of miners began to flee but two became lost in the dense smoke and suffocated, the newspaper said.
MSHA earlier this year referred the case to the U.S. attorney in Charleston for possible criminal prosecution after investigators decided that someone apparently had reset a carbon monoxide monitor, used for early fire detection, at least twice on the day of the fire and then attempted to delete the record of the earlier warnings.
