Rarely is a US CEO held accountable for the activities of the company he leads. Donald Leon Blankenship, former CEO of the now defunct Massy Energy Company is on trial for the death of 29 miners in the explosion at the company’s Upper Big Branch deep mine in Montcoal, West Virginia on April 5, 2010. Three invstigators have concluded that his methods contributed to the  explosion . This is the first time in 150 years of Appalachian mining that a top boss of a coal firm has ever had to answer for how he ran his company.