Corner Cutting and Greed Caused Massive Underground Explosion | Short Documentary 

I would love to see you make a tier list of all the disasters you've covered so far, and their places on the Disaster Scale shown at 12:29!

I’ve been considering doing a nuclear disaster iceberg when I hit 1mill subs

Just curious, why did you change the video title? It used to be “Coal Mine Explodes Due to Cost Cutting Killing 29 miners”

How many CEOs furiously clicked on this thinking it was legitimate advice?

​@@PlainlyDifficultI've said it before, but I'll say it again; I'd LOVE for you to cover the Cave Creek disaster here in Aotearoa, it will probably fill te bingo card on it's own!

Bold indeed

That’s why he’s a prick

FYP "...is a typical GOP move."

This is mad

@@YankeeRebel1348Dude, which party has been peeling back safety regulations for the past 4 decades while crying about the ones still left? And it's funny, when a Democrat commits a crime, the party is quick to banish them and wants them prosecuted. When a republican commits a crime, the party rushes to justify it.

Sadly true!

Tell me how many financial people went to prison for the 2008 clusterf*ck.

​@JimAllen-Persona I don't think anyone did? I can't remember at this point. I do remember think the ARMs were a colossally stupid idea because people were likely to not see an income increase large enough to meet the newer payments they would get in a few years, thus resulting in foreclosure and the mortgage company taking possession of the house and aelling it again. It turned out that I was exactly right on that one. The resulting crisis did lead to me getting a nice 30 year fixed rate mortgage for 3.75% when the housing market was in the tank. My house is worth more than twice what we paid 12 years ago and our monthly mortgage payment is less that what people are paying for rent for crappy townhouses half the size of my house.

If you knew who really owned the mines, you would understand why. Hint: it's the same group that runs the union.

Yes. I'm actually a little bit surprised any jail time was given at all.

"Political prisoner" my arse. That he even dares to show his face in public is disgraceful enough.

@@foo219 right?

Dude he tried to run for governor he is a prick

The following is copied text from another comment regarding the political career of this guy *↓↓↓* Here's a new square to add to the bingo card: "Dude in charge (Don Blankenship) later runs for US Senate and runs ads saying that the government blew up his mine and blamed him for it".

@@bedeckt We have a real problem in the upper parts of our government where they call it the old boys club. It's ran by the old coal barons. Jim, justice is a part of that current governor.

🙏

RIP to Joe and all the others we lost that day. I hope when people flip a light switch or turn on their heat they take a moment to reflect on the true cost of those conveniences. Nobody should be required to gamble their life to make it to retirement.

Damn. RIP Joe Marcum. I feel for your family, mate.

OMG.. sorry for your loss

How tragic. I'm sorry for your loss.

Damn, I thought I was the first to point this out 😂

@@Vicus_of_Utrecht - This is West Virginia... Both statements are TRUE LOL. Trust me. I worked there 5 years on engineering projects. Many states, counties, cities and jurisdictions have HUGE corruption and BS going on.

@@KlodFather Child, I know of the Deep State.

Another Mining Manager: "Don't forget all the settlement money for the families. I'm sure we can get the same amount of work done with just 14 new guys"

Life in WV

I think that you've misspelled Randian Hero.

@@Philip271828Hey, none of Ayn Rand’s protagonists ever allowed their people to take shortcuts. She was about respect of the individual. Yeah, she didn’t advocate paying people more than they were worth but wouldn’t compromise their safety. People always misrepresent her philosophy, especially politicians.

​@@JimAllen-Persona​ I've regretted reading Atlas Shrugged, and seeing as it reduces everything to $$$, I'd be surprised if the proletariat were paid anything more than subsistence wages. Given the hiring troubles most places seemed to be having, the only staff willing to work there being unwilling automatons at the best of times. The sheer lack of depth given to any of the characters made it seem to me that even John Galt was out of depth in a puddle. It also needed the services of an editor. Desperately. I wouldn't suggest reading Ayn Rands turgid dross to my worst enemy. I actually felt dumber for reading it, and spent as much time staring at the departure board willing my invariably delayed northern fail class 142 train to arrive and free me from my self inflicted mental anguish, if only for a moment. Anyone who takes any sort of life lesson from that book is bad person, and I think the only reason we haven't seen Elon Musk tattoo John Galt on his dick is it would be too damn obvious. Or maybe he hasn't got to the dick pics part of his mid life crisis.

Ok lets be honest 10% Nature (Erosion , Heavy Rain ,Snowfall etc) 20% Human Error and 70% Greed

@@JimAllen-Persona No, she was for respect for the self and only the self - the essential heart of capitalism. Her hero was a psychopathic kidnapper-murderer.

He is currently running as a Democrat to take over an open senate seat of a former democrat for our state of WV. He used to be a Republican. This state is very weird. We vote for democratic senators, but vote for republican presidents. So far I have not heard him in ads saying the government blew up his mine. WV isnt the highest edumacated place, but we (everyone else im not native to this state) know about coal mining and arent that stupid.

A game people play saving this it is not as much about education as it is being capable of rationalizing things

@@witchy90210 Ya might wanna contact news agencies. This would be a juicy story for those against him. I'm in alabama, so I don't have a say, but I wouldn't want anybody like that in the senate. Good luck!

@@amberblyledge7859 Your senators aren't really any better, if you haven't noticed.

Any "elected official" is immediately suspect in my mind.

I'm curious about the standing water statement - I'm guessing it's an issue because of trailing cables on miners and shuttle cars? I work underground gold and working in six inches of water is normal, but we have zero electricity to the face - everything is pneumatic or diesel.

I can see several problems with standing water but since I'm not a miner I don't know which ones are actually a problem: - electricity - diseases - degradation of equipment (mainly rust forming) - risk of falling when walking -...@@Porty1119

Plutocrats gonna plutocrat.

I agree, but in the UK he'd not have got jail time at all- the laws are written to protect the rich even more here. Though in general our H&S is better because our laws on what you have to do are stronger, our present right-wing government have cut inspections/prosecutions to the bone.

Plutocrats gonna plutocrat.

That's actually extremely rare for any CEO, I'm surprised he got any prison time at all.

This is how it’s always been. You can get 20 years for stealing a car. But cause a nationwide economic collapse that results in thousands of deaths for reasons stemming from that and you get zero days.

The state of WV ranks last of 50 states in almost every indicator along with Alabama and Mississippi

That’s awesome thank you!!

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3y_hhS_i6fY.htmlsi=VXF_ev8LrOAgb0fn

Cool story, bro.

Thank you!

Agreed, it sounds like the fallout of this was relatively mild for the company...actively doing all of that and treating their employees that way, actively breaking the law....less than $500 million in fines ( how much of that went anywhere near the people hurt by all this I wonder ) and one year in jail ( likely white collar jail at that )....

Jail is kinda soft when multiple people have died.

@@iivin4233 It's a joke. Upper management and owners are shielded from almost any criminal prosecution. The fact that this guy got jail time at all was huge news and that is shameful. It doesn't help that I'm pretty sure some MSHA people were negligent and possibly complicit in this accident. There was a restaurant or shop up the road where the inspectors would stop up the road for coffee. The shop would call tell the mine they were on their way and they would turn on the fans and water and try to make the place look safe. A bunch of people should be in prison for this

I think the video did just fine.

@@Vicus_of_Utrecht The video was great. I was just saying there were multiple stories within the story he couldn't cover without making the video more of a long documentary. He edited it well, I work in mining and I have spent a lot of time studying this incident, not everyone would be interested in that level of detail.

Ain't that the mf'ing truth.

TIL...lol

We call it natural gas in North America as well. It’s just greenwashed marketing from Big Oil.

Actually the smelly fa's in facts is the same gas released by rotten eggs: hydrogen sulphide, a.k.a sulphuretted hydrogen, or H2S.

maybe one day dear Jon Plainly gets to covering the disaster after which that was added!! (New London School disaster in 1937)

@@ferretyluv Rofl, it's called natural gas because it's the type of (flammable) gas that is most common in nature, and sometimes comes to the surface without human intervention (mount chimaera's eternal fires for example, now called yanartaş in turkish). It has been called this for at least two centuries, even before it's commercial use. The common gas used for heating well into the early 20th century was coal or "town" gas.

Sadly true

I think coal country has always been full of corrupt mine bosses. After all a miner works 16 tons and what do they get?

Nothing much has changed since Blair Mountain.

@@filanfyretracker Another day older and deeper in debt.

Thank you for letting us know that he didn't get voted in 👍

Coal is a bad fuel! I wish you guys would stop letting companies steal your mountains to sell coal to China!

Actually insane. Meanwhile if you end up killing a burglar you are charged with murder and will most likely get more time

I was thinking the same thing. There was a reason why they did all those things.

​@zootjitsu6767 shit they will throw the book at you and family would sue saying he robbed you at gun point because he was trying to feed his family of 10.

Just one year

Plutocrats gonna plutocrat.

Thank you!!

Indeed

This sounds like a comment made from a ancient Roman citizen about to go to the coliseum. Oh today we get to watch more people suffer. How barbaric sounding

Miners supporting Blankenship is like someone supporting the Leopards Eating Faces Party and being shocked when their face gets eaten.

​@@ferretyluv Many useful idiots can be found online simping for Du Pont, Purdue, and ExxonMobil. Turkeys supporting Christmas.

I was going to suggest this also.

Holy crap, your dad is a lucky guy! Im glad he walked away from this, but man i bet that weighed on him in its own ways.

Survivor's guilt is a tough one. Hope your dad is doing okay these days

bob murray and men like him felt the law didn't apply to them because they had enough money to make govt policy change

Very true advise!

Its an old video, but were we used to live the water was very hard!!

I go through a lot of vinegar cleaning my kettle! Hard water is awful

@@PlainlyDifficult Where I grew up, the water was pretty hard - it was impossible to get a lather with soap of any kind, and the mineral build-up was rather annoying. A significant portion of our water was groundwater rather than imports (despite being a major suburban area in an overall arid region, there was a reasonably high water table). So we the consumers either had to filter the water on our end or just live with our local mineral-water. I mean, it could've been much worse; our local water company was well-developed and well-funded.

@@PlainlyDifficultI feel your pain. My kettle is just as bad, and I just don't *want* to scrub it again yet.

​@@PlainlyDifficult that can be a pain! I had to start using distilled in my kettle to help save on the scale.

​@@relectric69I loved my union. starting wage was 25% more than non-unionized positions in the field, guaranteed 12 hours between shifts instead of 8, paid time off in case of injury requiring hospitalization even if you weren't scheduled, guaranteed raises every 500 hours worked, no outside hires for upper positions without thoroughly exhausting internal options, collective bargaining rights during labor disputes, a lawyer on retainer if the company did anything to violate a union right, and unlimited power for workers to say "lemme ask the union rep real quick..." as an ICBM against literally anything that didn't seem right? I miss that shit.

I blocked of that space on my card when he said "They didn't do the necessary prep work to bring the machine back into the mine.

Send in anonymous complaints to OSHA.

@@ferretyluv I just might have sent a little evidence to a few relevant government organisations. Oops!

You'd assume if a mine gets shut down for unsafe operations the company would have to cover the unemployment *they caused*, but obviously it would not be the united states of america if companies were hit right in the wallet.

I know it’s sad but i’m glad i’m not the only one who thought of coming here lol

I must be sick because I often laugh at some of the animations and comments 😂

@@paul6925 That bit at 3:41 explaining methane from the perspective of teenage boys (or my 10 yr old niece) was definitely worth a laugh.

@@thing_under_the_stairs 😂 very true

@@paul6925Everybody's got their inner 10 year old. Mine loved that bit.

@@thing_under_the_stairs 🍑🔥 lmao

I hope you get better soon!

@@PlainlyDifficultThank you!

Its interesting that no matter the topic and how much information is available on said topic. That it can be covered in a video 15 minutes long or less. Hmmmm

@@giggiddy It really is not if you actually engage your neurons for a second, it's just part of edition which has been a component of messaging since the dawn of formal messaging: you adapt the telling to the target audience and medium And John's medium is 15mn youtube videos. John literally linked the reports from the WVMHST in the description if you want more details, or you can get the MSHA's trivially by just looking it up.

@@BlairdBlaird Nicely put. Now let me nicely put this. I engage my neurons for a living. But these short videos have nowhere near the depth and detail that others have on the same topic. And while you may be impressed with the stupidly short videos watched by stupidly short attention spanned people on TikTok and the like. I dont subscribe to it and its turning our population into retards with the attention span of a sperm cell. Do as you wish. But I'm weeding out short content creators and I hope that these shorties don't continue because I genuinely enjoy this content. Cheers

Thank you!!

Thank you I really appreciate it!

Sadly true

It's only partially the corporations fault. Most of the fault lies on WE average citizens of the world. End the monetary system entirely and permanently. Adopt a resource based economy instead. Change the incentive, change the behavior that results. It's simpler than we think.

For the really big disasters you have to look to government greed for power.

@@rcrawford42Exactly! Stop taxing everyone into the poor house and corporations wouldnt have to skimp on safety!

​@@inconnu4961 😂😂😂 corporate profits are higher than ever.

Thank you!!

@@PlainlyDifficult Out of curiosity, have you considered joining Nebula? Would love to see you on there (and support you with my subscription). 🙂

Glad you like them!

Glad you like them!

Im just a regualar electrician, i do up to 480v but those linemen dealing with Up to and above 10kv are a different breed.

Laws do exist. The problem is Republican defunding of the government means inspectors are infrequent and violations are put on the backburner and rarely followed up on.

*you’re

@@ferretyluv You caught "Your", but missed "Mine's" - Great job :P

I'm from Inez Kentucky so I know all about the Martin County mine slurry flood and how things get resolved if a mining co is involved.

Thank you we are so close!

Thanks ...that was interesting...

dust explosions are some of the most dangerous, Hell people have in the past tried to design engines that run on coal dust and work similar to a diesel.

@@harrypeterson9287 Why the weird comment ? I thought it was interesting to know about the pressure and how it amplifies the fuck out of the explosion... Thanks again 😉

@@1lonecrow Sorry, man. Your excessive use of punctuation gave me the impression that you were being sarcastic. 😅

@@harrypeterson9287 All good ... Have a great day !

How many people die annually from meth in West Virginia? i bet its a LOT more than mining accidents!!

​@@inconnu4961well...call OSHA for your unsafe working conditions in the meth industry :p plz record this.

🍆 🔍

​@@PlainlyDifficult brutal

Before YOU complain. . . .. conduct All your home life according to OSHA standards! Never stand on a chair, buy the proper step ladder, the proper gloves, the proper knives, etc. If OSHA rules arent good enough for your home, then A you dont take safety SERIOUSLY, and b. imagine what its like for a company? it can be onerous & expensive for them as well.

@inconnu4961 oh you don't need OSHA for that. This is why companies put warning labels and instructions on many things found in your home. That way if you fall from standing on a rolling chair when it specifically said on the box not to, you cannot sue the company that makes the chair! These little things are not just for safety, but to cover our behinds when someone decides to do something stupid, like standing on a rolling chair.

​@@inconnu4961 Have YOU done that? Because it's really not that complicated or expensive, especially once you realise injuries cost money and reduce productivity. It's hard to complain about the consequences of falling off a chair when somebody told you beforehand to get the appropriate ladder. It's cheaper to do the job right the first time, rather than cut corners and get somebody injured

Thank you!