[Larry King:] A special edition of LARRY KING LIVE. They're hanging to a shred of hope in West Virginia tonight, as workers continue to vent those deadly gases from the mine. A press conference is underway. Let's get the latest from CNN's Brooke Baldwin on the scene in Noma Brooke.
[Brooke Baldwin, Cnn Correspondent:] Larry, a huge announcement as we were just listening to that he news conference. It was Kevin Strickland with MSHA, the federal mining basically the governing body. And that is the first time that we've heard anyone here actually talk about the next phase of this rescue mission, which is when they would send in these 30 guys. He mentioned six teams going in under the mine and try to get to the rescue chamber. You know, this massive, long, painstaking process has taken what seems like, I'm sure, an eternity for all these families who are in West Virginia waiting for news. What's taken so long essentially is they've got these five holes they're planning on drilling, one of which just one has made it all the way down to the mine at 1,100 feet down. They've been testing the air quality. And as you just heard, MSHA was saying that it's finally improved. So he's saying sort of nebulously, hopefully soon they'll be able to send the rescuers in and hopefully find these missing miners in this rescue chamber Larry.
[King:] Brooke, we understand that President Obama reached out to some of the families who lost loved ones. Is that true?
[Baldwin:] That is true. I've seen the picture of the president on the phone from the Oval Office reaching out to some of these miners' families, of course, offering condolences and, you know, a bit of news, at least for folks here in West Virginia. The West Virginia basketball coach, they call him Huggie Bob Huggins called or actually visited via helicopter here, some of the miners' families. That apparently, according to one of the Congressmen I was talking to, was a huge deal a huge ray of hope for for the folks out here. But they're just these families, as you can imagine, they're waiting. They're furious with Massey Energy. They feel like the truth hasn't been given to them as expediently as they would like. They really just have yet to hear the words, "I'm sorry," according to some I've...
[King:] What about the...
[Baldwin:] talked to Larry.
[King:] Brooke, what about the families of the four missing miners? Have you been in touch? How are they holding up?
[Baldwin:] I have not been in touch. It is this has been so challenging, covering this story. I was in West Virginia covering Sago four years ago and it was easy to be in touch with those families because they were sort of holed up in this church behind the row of media. But here, those families, Larry, are a couple miles away deep, deep into this mining property. And so it's almost impossible for us here to talk to to the families. But from what I've been told, they have been told to go home, get sleep, take a shower. And most of them have stayed put right up the road, holding out all hope.
[King:] We're talking with Brooke Baldwin, CNN correspondent on the screen. Let's carry a little bit of that press conference now in progress.
[Kevin Stricklin, U.s. Mine Safety & Health Administration:] We pegged our instruments, high methane, low oxygen. So I would expect the air to be not as good as what we would like to see it be.
[Question:] In regards to drilling of the hole
[Stricklin:] Could you repeat that?
[Question:] Earlier today, you had talked about putting cameras down in those holes
[Stricklin:] It's not suspended. We're doing both operations at the same time. But our intent our preference would be to rescue teams to go in and almost physically touch those refuge chambers. If the air is too bad or we find that it's unsafe for the teams to go underground, our Plan B is to drill from the surface and use cameras.
[Question:] What is the estimated time it will take once they enter the mine to reach those chambers?
[Stricklin:] I I don't know exactly. As as quickly as possible.
[Question:] How far do they have to travel?
[Stricklin:] It's about five miles total to get into the mine to get into where these chambers are, I believe, someone
[Question:] Would it be by foot?
[Stricklin:] No, it won't be by foot. It will be we'll ride in as far as we can and until we can't travel any further by ride. Then they'll walk the rest of the way.
[Question:] And just to be absolutely clear, how many rescue chambers are we talking about that you need to check?
[Stricklin:] Two.
[Question:] Well, there has been a case... There's been a break in the drilling at all since you started, which would allow you to listen for the sounds that you hope to hear?
[Stricklin:] We have not had a break in the drilling. We think it's important to keep going right now with the drilling operation to get the bore holes in. It's important to get that in right now for us.
[King:] Imagine surviving an explosion that killed at least 25 people. Stanley Stewart did just that. He was inside the mine Monday when the blast sent him scrambling to survive. He joins us now from Noma, West Virginia. How are you doing physically and emotionally? How are you doing Stanley?
[Stanley Stewart, Survived Mine Explosion:] I'm doing OK, Larry.
[King:] All right. Take us back. Where were you when the blast...
[Stewart:] I'm coping.
[King:] I understand. Where were you when the blast occurred?
[Stewart:] I was approximately 300 feet inside the portal, sitting in the man trip. We were about to leave to head to our section and the air hit us. It started out as a small breeze, it felt like. And then it got hard, very hard. And so I got out of the man trip quickly. I knew something was wrong and I knew that we needed to get outside. The wind intensified to what I felt like was a gale force, hurricane like wind. My eyes were filling with dirt. I had to put my head down. I couldn't see. And I felt panic setting in, although I knew I didn't have far to go. But still, I was scared. And I told the guys that was coming with me to take their time, be careful, we didn't need to fall down. We didn't know we knew something big had happened. We didn't know what. But we needed to get out. And luckily we did.
[King:] How many were with you?
[Stewart:] There were probably approximately 15 getting ready to go inside to our sections at the time.
[King:] Do do you feel lucky...
[Stewart:] I don't have an exact number, but I'm I feel very lucky and fortunate, Larry, so much.
[King:] Yes, boy. So how long between the first wind hitting and getting out did it take, do you think? A matter of minutes?
[Stewart:] Yes, it just took a couple of minutes. It didn't take very long. And we like I just stated, we were very fortunate that we were that close to the outside and were lucky enough to get out to safety.
[King:] We'll be right back with Stanley Stewart and more still to come, Martina Navratilova. Don't leave us, Stanley, because we're coming right back on LARRY KING LIVE. Don't go away.