Ben Hatfield People Quotations

We determined we could move forward at a quicker pace by rehabilitating fewer entries and doing less construction on the way in. I believe we have the smartest, most talented people in the industry working as hard as they can to get the men out safely.

Our focus is not on defending records, our focus is on getting people out of there and that's all we want to focus on at this point. We believe the mine was safe.

We have an army of people working as hard as they can to get the ventilation fixed so it is safe to go in and conduct the investigation.

We will push forward as quickly as we can as long as there is a shred of hope that we can get our people out safely.

You have a group of people who have been on their feet for 30 to 40 hours trying to save lives. They were looking desperately for a good outcome. I don't think anyone knew how much damage was going to be created. I certainly regret that.

Everyone was talking about it in the parking lots, in the kitchen and everywhere. People that got the information were sharing it because that was the hot rumor.

They were looking desperately for good information. These are friends, family of the people that are trapped. There was desperation for good information. They wanted to share it.

The families, much like the people working in the command center, are clinging to every hope.

The foremost concern throughout this process has been that there are so many things we don't know about what went wrong. We don't want to put any more people at risk until we know answers.