PM shares Pike River frustration

John Key. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Prime Minister John Key has acknowledged his own frustration as well as that of the affected families and the entire country over the time it is taking to get rescuers to the 29 Pike River miners.

"It's fair to say there is a degree of frustration on the ground," Mr Key said this morning almost four days after the blast.

"The families are frustrated, we are frustrated, the country is frustrated."

While the breakdown this morning of a defence force robot sent into the mine to investigate conditions was a setback, the lack of more sophisticated technology was not the major issue.

The arrival of a more advanced robot being sent from the US was a possibility, "but you don't want to pin everything on a robot".
Robots would give a better idea of conditions underground, but a rescue required people to enter the mine.

However he trusted that the advice of experts now at site was the best available in New Zealand and Australia.

"The issue is, can someone walk into the mine and take out miners that might be alive and the answer in a unified way is no."

Mr Key acknowledged it could be even more days before that happened.
He said that if the men were alive, they could survive a long time as long they had a source of water and breathable air where they were.

While there was no evidence the blast had physically trapped them the miners were trained not to try and walk out themselves, but instead to secure an air source, stay put and await rescue.