CHARLESTON — Mandatory air sampling yielded no sign of trouble only “tens of minutes” before an explosion shook the ill-fated Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County this month and left 29 workers dead, owner Massey Energy disclosed Monday.

“There was no indication of a dangerous situation,” Massey director Stan Suboleski, a mining engineer, told reporters in the firm’s first news conference  since the April 5 disaster, worst in American mining in four decades.

“No hazards were found.”

In fact, the level of volatile methane, tentatively suspected as the source of the horrific blast, ranged from zero to near-zero, with a maximum of .3 of 1 percent. Methane explodes when it reaches a level of 5 percent of the air, he noted.

In a far-ranging news conference, Massey leaders revealed that the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration required a “complex and difficult” ventilation system to be in place at UBB but wouldn’t speculate on whether this was a contributing factor.

Upper Big Branch is divided into five sections, three of which were affected by the mid-afternoon explosion, Suboleski said.

Two continuous miner crews had ceased production and were about to exit but it hasn’t been determined if longwall production was in progress, he said.

“It’s important to know that the longwall at UBB wasn’t operating with the simple ventilation system” it had last year, since Massey had acquiesced to MSHA’s insistence on a newer one, which “made ventilation significantly more complex,” the engineer said.

“The volume of fresh air to the face was significantly reduced during this period,” he said.

“Our engineers resisted making these changes, in one instance, to the point of shutting down production two days before agreeing to the MSHA ventilation plan changes.”

In a question-and-answer session, however, Suboleski acknowledged the firm couldn’t label the new system as being “less safe.”

“All indications are that at the start of the shift, everything was OK,” he said. “We really don’t know what happened.

As for other possible sources of an explosion, such as an unacceptable level of coal dust, Suboleski told a reporter, “There is no indication of any other dangers...” But one thing is certain, he said, and that is the mine foreman performed the required checks and found nothing amiss in the mine’s air only minutes before the disaster.

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Bob Inman, a onetime deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency and now a Massey director, blasted President Barack Obama, the heads of both the United Mine Workers of America and AFL-CIO, and an unidentified plaintiff’s lawyer, for accusing the firm of trading safety for fatter profits.

In underground operations alone, he said, Massey has spent some $45 million on safety enhancement, then wondered aloud what motivated the company’s critics to engage in “this big lie” that safety took a backseat to earnings.

“In 25 years, there never has been a suggestion that you crimp on spending going to safety to boost profits,” Inman said. “It’s a big lie. Not only is it not true, but even when you infer it, you dishonor the members and the management at Massey.”

CEO Don Blankenship was given a vote of confidence after a call went up by “less than 2 percent” of the shareholders to oust him, and this was a wise move, Inman told reporters.

“Making changes in the middle of a crisis is an exceptionally high risk for all stakeholders,” Inman said.

“When the crisis has subsided and we know the facts, we will maintain the highest standard of accountability and responsibility. We’ve suffered a great tragedy with the loss of 29 miners but will learn from that accident.”

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Blankenship declined to speculate as to when the mine would be ventilated sufficiently that noxious gases no longer dominate and regulators can launch the arduous and lengthy task of carrying out an investigation.

“For me personally, this is a difficult time,” the CEO said.

“We’re a family. We work together, live together, pray together and when disaster strikes, we come together and console each other.”

Blankenship acknowledged his reception among grieving families in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy was “mixed.”

“Some members were extremely frustrated and very hurt and very emotional and very angry, and all that was very understandable,” the Massey leader said, adding 90 percent of the family members appreciated the appearance by him and other senior management.

Blankenship applauded the families, other UBB workers, Gov. Joe Manchin, MSHA and other regulatory agencies, the clergymen who comforted grieving families, and President Obama for headlining a solemn memorial service Sunday in Beckley in tribute to the fallen miners.

“We are fully dedicated to finding out what happened, if humanly possible to do so,” he said.

“We owe it to the families, and to the industry, and to the public our best and sincerest efforts to find the cause of the explosion. It is critical that we find out the facts so that all Massey and industry coal miners can work without fear of another explosion. Once the facts are known, we will enact a corrective process at Massey immediately and encourage regulation and laws focused on eliminating the chance of a recurrence.”

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Robert Foglesong, a former four-star Air Force general and now a Massey director, told reporters the victims’ families will be set for life financially.

All their children will get a four-year scholarship and health coverage. Massey will supplement the Workers Compensation payment to the point it reaches the miners’ base pay, and each will get five times the annual pay in life insurance for financial needs. In addition, he said, Massey covered the funeral costs.

What’s more, Foglesong said, the benefits Massey agreed to pay in no way obligates any surviving family member to reach a settlement.

“We’re doing it because it’s the thing to do,” he added.

Blankenship said 7,000 miners report for duty every day in a Massey installation, mindful that his No. 1 priority is to provide them a safe place to work.

Recalling his youth when he filled gas into workers’ cars at a mine site, Blankenship said he remembers the pain of a miner not coming home again.

“That’s been in my heart since I was a kid,” he added.

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com