NPR's Morning Edition dropped a bombshell earlier today. Two months before the Upper Big Branch explosion,an electrician was ordered to disable a key safety device.
On Feb. 13, an electrician deliberately disabled a methane gas monitor on a continuous mining machine because the monitor repeatedly shut down the machine.
Three witnesses say the electrician was ordered by a mine supervisor to "bridge" the automatic shutoff mechanism in the monitor.
Listen to the full story here:
If I'm the supervisor who issued that order or the electrician who carried it out, I'd have a lawyer on speed dial. Disabling a methane monitor is blatantly illegal, according to the MSHA.
How significant is this? Well, back in April, rescuers had to pull back at least TWICE because methane levels were still off the scale even though there was no active production.
continued at Daily Kos....
