By Taylor Kuykendall

Two West Virginia coal miners are dead following an entrapment at a mine previously identified by federal officials as a pattern violator.

According to the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, at about 8:30 p.m. on May 12, a "ground failure" occurred at Patriot Coal Corp.'s Brody Mine No. 1 near Wharton, W.Va. The West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training, or MHS&T, identified the victims as Eric Legg, 48, of Twilight, W.Va.; and Gary Hensley, 46, of Chapmanville, W.Va. Preliminary indications are that the incident was the result of a coal outburst, the MHS&T office said. A state spokeswoman said no additional injuries or entrapments have been reported.

Amy Louviere, a spokeswoman for MSHA, said the miners' bodies have been recovered.

In an email to SNL Energy, Patriot Coal confirmed that Legg and Hensley "were fatally injured in a severe coal burst as the mine was conducting retreat mining operations." Brody is part of the Wells Mining Complex in Boone County.

"We express our deepest sympathies to Eric's and Gary's families, friends and co-workers," said Mike Day, Patriot executive vice president - operations. "We are fully cooperating with state and federal mine regulatory agencies to investigate this incident."

In October 2013, the Brody mine, operated by Brody Mining LLC, was identified for MSHA pattern of violations, or POV, status, intended to identify mines with a pattern of "significant and substantial," or S&S, violations of mine safety laws that are "reasonably likely to result in a reasonably serious injury or illness." MSHA unveiled a streamlined approach to cracking down on chronic violators in the wake of the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine disaster, also in West Virginia, where 29 miners died in an explosion.

Brody received 253 S&S violations during that POV review period. An MSHA audit of Brody's records found that injuries of miners resulted in 1,757 lost-work days at the mine, 367 of which were from eight lost-time injuries that Brody failed to report to MSHA. In a 2012 audit, MSHA found 29 injuries Brody failed to report and 724 unreported lost-work days.

At the time of the POV designation, Patriot, which acquired the mine Dec. 31, 2012, said it was contesting the status and that most of the violations and severity measures had occurred under a prior owner. Patriot said in an Oct. 24, 2013, release that it "intends to vigorously contest the POV finding."

Brody was highlighted by the National Mining Association as an example demonstrating the "urgent need for relief from immediate harm" of the new POV regulations in a filing requesting an emergency stay of the new rules. An appeals court denied the motion.

In the Oct. 24 release, Patriot said Brody had "made considerable and measurable progress toward improved safety and compliance." Patriot said it had replaced all former officers and key mine-level managers shortly after the purchase.

According to MSHA's POV Monthly Monitoring Tool for Pattern of Violations, the Brody mine had reported 192 S&S violations in the 12-month period between April 1, 2013, and March 31, a number that is well above the threshold of 50 S&S violations for POV status. The mine also had a rate of elevated citations and orders per 100 inspection hours that was high enough to qualify for POV status. However, due to two other factors, Brody did not meet POV status criteria as of the last day the data was refreshed, April 15.

According to MSHA data, while there had been no prior fatalities reported at Brody, the nonfatal incident rate has been higher than the national nonfatal incident rate every year that the mine was in operation.

MSHA data shows that inspectors had conducted spot inspections at the mine as recently as May 6, where a citation was issued regarding federal regulations on weekly examinations. In the past two months, Brody has received MSHA citations on four occasions — March 26 and April 7, 15 and 21 — under Section 75.220 of federal mining regulations regarding roof control plans.

Brody produced about 209,419 tons of coal and employed an average of 262 underground miners and 14 surface workers in the first quarter. The mine produced 954,741 tons of coal in 2013.

Hours before the accident in West Virginia, Patriot announced that it was idling its Highland mine complex in Kentucky after a preparation plant facility collapsed. No miners were injured in that incident.

The incidents follow a year that Patriot CEO Ben Hatfield called "very disappointing" in an Oct. 10 letter to employees. Patriot reported two fatalities in 2013. Hatfield told SNL Energy in an October 2013 interview that he expected Patriot's safety performance to improve and that "we're certainly not proud of our safety performance this year."

MSHA personnel are investigating on-site, and a family liaison has been sent to the mine to assist the families during the recovery.

Three other coal miners, including one in West Virginia, have died in coal mining accidents this year. The current year-to-date period is the longest in which the coal industry has not reported four or more deaths, based on MSHA records dating back to 1995.

West Virginia had the nation's highest number of coal miner fatalities in 2013. Of the 20 such fatalities in 2013, six occurred in West Virginia.

West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin issued a statement on the deaths May 13.

"Joanne [Tomblin] and I extend our heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of the two miners — Eric and Gary— who lost their lives in this tragic mining accident," Tomblin said. "We ask all West Virginians to continue praying for them during this very difficult time for our mining community."