- Sputnik International
Russia
The latest news and stories from Russia. Stay tuned for updates and breaking news on defense, politics, economy and more.

Blast at Siberian mine caused by tampering with safety - regulator-1

Subscribe
(Recasts headline, lead, adds a quote, background)

MOSCOW, June 6 (RIA Novosti) - An explosion at the Yubileinaya mine in West Siberia, in which 39 people died May 24, was the result of tampering with the mine's safety systems, the head of a Russian technical safety regulator said Wednesday.

Konstantin Pulikovsky, the head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of the Environment, Technology and Nuclear Management, said he would reach a final conclusion on the reasons for the accident during a visit to the mine June 8.

"Experts believe that the safety system at the Yubileinaya mine was tampered with," the official said, adding that tampering had recently become one of the major causes of accidents at Russian mines.

Yuzhkuzbassugol, one of the country's largest coal producers, owns the Yubileinaya mine which was hit by an explosion that killed 39 miners in May, as well as the Ulyanovskaya mine, in which 110 people died in a blast March 19.

An investigation committee established that British-made methane sensors in the Ulyanovskaya mine had been illegally readjusted to display lower methane levels.

"The British equipment failed to work because of unauthorized interference with the mine sensors and equipment servers. As a result, the reading of methane levels in the mine were lower than was actually the case, and no one knew the real levels," Pulikovsky said in April.

Addressing Russian lawmakers Wednesday, Pulikovsky said managers at all levels at both mines had been involved in deliberate crimes committed in order to increase coal production.

At the same time, mine operators failed to conduct the degasification of mines in order to reduce methane levels, he said.

The official proposed giving work safety inspectors the authority to suspend the operation of so-called "at-risk" mines if they uncovered violations of safety regulations there.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала