The man who used to inspect the safety of New Zealand mines on behalf of the Government is throwing his support behind a re-entry of Pike River Mine.
Tony Forster worked as Worksafe's Chief Mines Inspector from January 2013 to 2016, and he's in Wellington to ask Prime Minister Bill English to reconsider entering Pike.
"I think people deserve an explanation. There has been a lot of hurt, there's a lot of trouble going on; I'd like to help," he told The AM Show.
"I don't know if I can but I'm certainly going to try and help and see if we can move this situation on a little bit."
He flew in at midnight and will meet with victim family members Bernie Monk, Anna Osborne, Sonya Rockhouse, and Dean Dunbar who fly into the capital later on Wednesday morning.
The group will meet with Mr English at 4pm.
Mr Forster says a staged re-entry of the defunct coal mine can be done safely,
"I'm quite prepared to justify my position but I'm not here to lecture anyone, or to argue with people."
He says he's there to put forward the case David Creedy and Bob Stevenson have put together, "and try and help Bernie articulate some of the more technical issues".
"I believe this plan is safe for two reasons. First of all, we have to make this absolutely clear, this is the drift, this is the stone drift. So this is not about re-entering the mine".
Mr Forster says the second reason comes down to airflow within the mine.
"Before anyone goes into anywhere, we'd have to demonstrate that we had properly ventilated this mine, that we had purged the mine of the methane.
"We'd basically need to put a triple-lock on this mine, taking away the oxygen, taking away the flammable material which is the methane, and isolating any source of ignition."
Pike families spokesperson Bernie Monk says the coal mine is the biggest crime scene in New Zealand history. He's revealed they'll take the matter to court if they cannot convince the Government to re-enter.
"We need to get into this mine to get evidence, to make prosecutions towards companies and individuals, and also to be able to bring out any men that are in this drift," he told The AM Show.
Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn says the families are fairly optimistic they can convince the Prime Minister to order officials to re-enter the mine.
"They are as positive as they can be. They're going to see Bill English, and they're hoping that Bill will see their point of view but up until this point there has been a stalemate," he says.
The families go armed with a health and safety report they says it's safe to re-enter Pike.
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