NYC - Sandy crane failure

[MintJulep]

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/crane-collapse-manhattan-article-1.1194790

So it looks to me like this crane should look like this:

Which seems to mean that the hurricane winds lifted the boom up past vertical and pushed it over backwards.

 

[pmover]

i just saw the video, incredible.

question for the crane folks, are these cranes capable of being "tied down" in the event of high winds or other inclement weather?

I'd be curious how they plan to dismantle the crane.

 

[hokie66]

Yes, it looks like the boom got bent back over the counterweight. Maybe the boom was parked too high?

Thy don't "tie down" this type of crane. Rather, they are "weather vaned" or allowed to rotate about the tower.

 

[evelrod]

Having worked with cranes of this type in years past, the 'swing' was not left open (OR SOMETHING PREVENTED IT TO SWING) to allow the rig to 'weathervane' and, true to what you say, the wind blew the boom over. The news media made a huge deal of "it's much to dangerous to have men go out to secure it with 'cables' until the weather clears and makes it possible to disassemble it and bring it safely down. Listen, if that had been my crew of Ironworkers you can damn well trust in whatever faith you believe in, that rig would have been secured no matte how bad the wind was blowing! My money is on the fact that the Metro Ironworkers did EXACTLY THAT!

Rod