Families of the 29 men killed in the Pike River Coal mine explosion say it is "unforgivable" that a former manager is alleged to have been emailing off job applications when he was aware there had been a serious incident at the mine.

Doug White, who took over as mine manager five months before the November 19, 2010 disaster, rejected the allegations while giving evidence on Tuesday to the royal commission of inquiry into the tragedy.

But the hearing was shown two emails about other employment from Mr White just after 4pm on the day of the disaster.

The commission's lawyer, Simon Mount, was trying to establish whether Mr White went back to his office to send the emails when he was aware there was an incident at the mine, 3News reported.

"At the time I sent those emails, I had absolutely no idea at all there was a major incident at the mine," Mr White said.

The first explosion in the mine was estimated to be at 3.45pm and the hearing was told Mr White was alerted there was a problem at 3.50pm.

He came out of a meeting and detected an unusual smell before going directly to the control room.

When he got to the control room, around 4pm, he said there was something unusual about the situation, but was not aware of the explosion.

Bernie Monk, spokesman for the men's families, said they were upset by the revelations.

He called Mr White's actions "unforgivable".

"If you go out and smell gunpowder and [with] the knowledge of things were down, well, I just can't accept that, so it's something that he must live with," Mr Monk said.

While Mr White was giving evidence, a family member of one of the men yelled out, "this was while my boy was dying, Jesus Christ" before running from the court in tears.

After Mr White and others visited the mine entrance a 111 call was made at 4.35pm once it became apparent something had gone seriously wrong.