Trapped visitors never panicked during Colorado gold mine tragedy that killed tour guide

The man who died when a Colorado gold mine elevator malfunctioned this week has been identified as a tour guide — while one of the visitors who was trapped underground for hours said the group never “panicked” as first engineers raced to rescue them.Patrick Weier, 46, was working as a guide at Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine near Cripple Creek when the “very tragic accident” occurred Thursday, according to Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell.The exact cause of Weier’s death was not immediately revealed, but authorities said they believed it was related to the elevator glitch as opposed to a medical episode.Weier, who lived in nearby Victor, left behind a 7-year-old son.The dad of one was on board the elevator when it experienced a mechanical issue at about 500 feet deep.The elevator was still working, and those on board were brought back to the surface within about 20 minutes, according to Mikesell.A door on the elevator was broken when it was raised, and four other people suffered minor injuries.The group of 11 included two children.“We don’t know if the door malfunctioned or not or if something else occurred.There’s a lot that goes on in these little elevators,” Mikesell said.

“We just know that the door was broken somehow.”A second group of 12 adults were trapped below ground for about six hours while engineers scrambled to make the elevator workable again.One of the visitors, Rhonda Pulse, said the group stayed relatively calm during their long wait.“I am really pleased with the way the Teller County Sheriff’s Department handled things.They could’ve told us, but that would’ve just caused panic.

There’s no need.There was nothing we can do about it,” she told KKTV.“We were inconvenienced.

We were uncomfortable, but we weren’t ….We were blissfully unaware.

We got hungry.We got kind of cold,” she added.“It was uncomfortable, but we were never panicked or afraid, at least no one ever visibly said are we ever going to get ...