It also resulted in the country's worst loss of life caused by a single disaster since the 1979 crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901, although it was surpassed three months later by the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

[3][4][5][6][7] In December 2012, Prime Minister John Key said he would apologise in person to the families of the dead, for the government's weak regulations and inadequate inspection regime.

In February 2021, the Pike River Recovery Agency reported that it had reached a point 2.2 km up the mine access tunnel to the site of a rockfall.

[21] The fire appeared to be located near the bottom of the shaft, burning either loose coal or the seam itself, and considerably complicated efforts to stabilise the mine and made recovery of "intact" bodies unlikely.

In addition to police, "Operation Pike" involved staff and management from Pike River Coal Ltd, the company operating the mine (represented at media and family conferences by CEO Peter Whittall), mine rescue experts from New Zealand and Australia, the Red Cross, ambulance services, the New Zealand Defence Force, and the Fire Service.

[42] Both the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges placed trading halts on Pike River Coal (PRC) shares following the first explosion to allow the company time to "provide the market with a detailed update".

On 2 December 2010, when New Zealand held a nationwide moment of silence, including at the stock exchange, PRC's suspension was inadvertently allowed to end and about 200,000 share trades were later invalidated.

In February 2013, a panel of experts, including representatives from Solid Energy, the government and families of the deceased, met to discuss whether retrieval of the bodies would be possible if they had the necessary funding.

[61] In October 2013, Solid Energy with the assistance of the New Zealand Defence Force started the Pike re-entry project in an effort to send mine rescue and other experts 2.3 km into the drift access tunnel and close to the debris blockage caused by a roof fall.

[62] The following year WorkSafe wrote to Solid Energy stating that the re-entry plan made at that time was "safe and technically feasible"; and this became public knowledge the following month, in September 2014.

People at the service included Peter Whittall (CEO of Pike River Coal) and Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn who delivered a message from Pope Benedict XVI, saying that he shared the anxiety of the miners' families and that his prayers were with them.

[72] Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, sent to John Key a note expressing her condolences for the families of the deceased, calling the event a "national disaster".

[76] The New Zealand Warriors and Newcastle Knights opened their 2011 season schedule with a charity match to raise money for the West Coast region.

In a joint partnership between the two teams, the NZRL and NRL, all money raised from the match was divided between the Pike River mining relief fund and the West Coast Rugby League.

On 17 March 2011, after attending a national memorial service for the earthquake in Christchurch, Prince William visited Greymouth and met families affected by the disaster.

[79] On 27 June 2011, The Australian featured an article titled "Miners doomed by fatal flaws" which alleged that Peter Whittall had not ensured the Pike River Mine had installed safety measures which are common in Australia, but are not legally required in New Zealand.

The possible safety measures not used in the Pike River Mine were a "tube bundle" gas monitoring system, stocks of food and water, breathing apparatus, and a second escape route.

[citation needed] In November 2013, the Christchurch-based journalist Rebecca Macfie published the book Tragedy at Pike River Mine: How and Why 29 Men Died, based on research and interviews into the causes of the disaster.

[81][82] Several commentators criticised successive National and Labour Party governments for deregulating safety in the mining sector and some also argued that the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), which had several members at Pike River, did not do enough to prevent the tragedy.

Simester and Brookbanks wrote in their criminal law textbook:[D]isasters like Pike River seem to point inexorably towards the need to better regulate the activities of corporate managers and to create a stronger safety culture around workplace environments.

[88]In November 2010, Prime Minister John Key announced that the Government would conduct a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the disaster, to be led by Justice Graham Panckhurst.

[106][107] On 31 July 2012, the contracting company Valley Longwall International pleaded guilty in the Greymouth District Court to three health and safety charges.

[111][112] Instead, Whittall and Pike River Coal offered a voluntary payment on behalf of the directors and officers of the company to the families of the men and two survivors.

[113] On 23 November 2017 the New Zealand Supreme Court ruled that the arrangement by WorkSafe to drop all charges against Whittall, conditional on payment of $3.41 million, was an agreement to prevent the prosecution and was therefore unlawful.

[114] On 23 November 2020, the New Zealand Law Society confirmed in a letter to former lawyer Christopher Harder, who lodged a formal complaint in October 2020, that the matter was being referred to a Standards Committee "for consideration of commencing an investigation of its own motion".

The complaint, viewed by the New Zealand Herald, claims that Stuart Grieve QC and then Crown Prosecutor for Christchurch Brent Stanaway brought the legal profession into disrepute by entering into an "unlawful agreement to pay money for the dropping of all charges" and "stifling a prosecution by deliberately misleading and deceiving the sentencing judge [District Court Judge Jane Farish]".

"[116] After an agreement was signed between New Zealand's major political parties in Wellington on 15 August 2017, soon-to-be Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pledged that a manned re-entry of the mine would be conducted with the object of recovering bodies and investigating the cause of the explosion.

[127] On 17 February 2021, the Pike River Recovery Agency abandoned plans to recover the bodies of fallen miners after reaching the roof fall 2.26 kilometres up the mine's access tunnel.

[130] On 12 May 2021, the Government confirmed that it was reviewing an NZ$8 million plan submitted by a group representing 23 Pike River families to recover the mine's ventilation fan, which is considered to be the most likely source of the 2010 explosion.

[132] Some of the families and supporters launched a social media campaign and an online petition, titled "Help stop critical evidence in Pike River mine from being locked away for ever!