Three men killed after plunging 500 feet down air shaft at Indiana coal mine

PRINCETON, Ind. -- A group of people being carried in a construction bucket plunged 500 feet down an air shaft at a coal mine Friday, and three men died, authorities said.

All other people at the site have been accounted for, said George Zugel, director of safety and health for Frontier-Kemper Constructors Inc., which is building the 550-foot vertical ventilation shaft at the Gibson County Coal mine in southern Indiana.

Crews were working to remove the bodies after the late-morning accident, Sgt. Jay Riley said.

The "sinking bucket" can hold six to 10 people and is about 6 feet high, worker John Ervin said. Authorities did not say whether anyone other than the three victims was in the bucket, and it wasn't clear whether they fell out of the bucket or the bucket itself fell.

"I don't understand how this could have happened," Ervin said.

At the start of a shift, the bucket typically takes about six people down to the work area at the bottom of the shaft, Ervin said. The bucket is inspected daily, he said.

The victims' names were being withheld until their families were notified, Zugel said.

The mine, owned by Tulsa, Okla.-based Alliance Resource Partners, is about 30 miles north of Evansville.

Debbie King, executive assistant for investor relations at Alliance, said the accident was not connected to the mine.

"It is a construction accident. We can't report on it because it's not our accident," she said.

Officials from the Indiana Department of Labor and the Indiana Bureau of Mines are investigating at the mine, said Labor Department spokesman Sean Keefer.

The mine began production in July 2000. The last fatality was in November 2001, according to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration. The miner died after being pinned by equipment, and operator error was cited as the cause.

Last year, the mine administration cited the company for 353 safety violations, 127 of which were deemed "serious or significant," said Rodney Brown, a spokesman for the agency. The mine has faced 292 citations this year, 84 of which were considered serious and significant.

In 2006, the company produced more than 3.5 million tons of coal, ranking second among the state's coal producers, according to the Indiana Coal Council.