One of the 2000' airplane catchers @ Fordland, MO hit the ground today

timwinters

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Some reports say there were 7 maintenance personnel on it, some reports say 6. Some say they were about 100' up, some say 150'. Either way it's a miracle that only one person died.

There are about a half dozen towers in that immediate area ranging from 1500' to 2000' AGL because it's the highest ground in the area. I can see them all quite clearly from my house. They're only about 8 to 10 miles south of me. And I can see which one is missing. Bummer. :(

http://www.ky3.com/content/news/Inv...V-tower-collapse-near-Fordland-480306993.html
 
Wow! that had to be a frightening experience!
 
Some reports say there were 7 maintenance personnel on it, some reports say 6. Some say they were about 100' up, some say 150'. Either way it's a miracle that only one person died.

There are about a half dozen towers in that immediate area ranging from 1500' to 2000' AGL because it's the highest ground in the area. I can see them all quite clearly from my house. They're only about 8 to 10 miles south of me. And I can see which one is missing. Bummer. :(

http://www.ky3.com/content/news/Inv...V-tower-collapse-near-Fordland-480306993.html
The survivors were very fortunate. These guys were not so lucky:

Dave
 
horrible. didnt read. isnt it usually a guy wire failure?

My father had his 2000'+ tower collapse during a guy wire replacement a few years ago. They had removed one wire and replaced it with a temporary one using a wire splice that didn't include turnbacks. While they went to lunch the wind picked up and the loading exceeded the friction of the u-bolts which slipped apart. The tower bounced past its No Return Angle and kept going.

He had engineers present but thankfully the actual structure avoided the main shack. He said they found the main antenna 20' down in the ground.o_O

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/22671062/ns/us_news-life/t/-foot-tv-tower-collapses-arkansas/
 
Yeah, it's not as unusual as one might think. Back in November of 2001 (IIRC) we lost another Fordland tower, that one 1600', in a heavy ice storm.

It was a pretty windy day here today. Not as windy as it was up yesterday, but still quite windy. Have no idea if that had anything to do with the collapse.
 
Having thousands of lbs of come from together descend, unrequested, upon my head is up there with my fear of heights!
 
That literally hit close to home for you Tim. Amazing that anybody survived it.
 
Having thousands of lbs of come from together descend, unrequested, upon my head is up there with my fear of heights!

One of the engineers in our collapse said he got into ball and kissed his butt good bye. Once the chaos had stopped he got up, lit a smoke, and took the longest drag of his life.
 
The Senior Road collapse was due to failure of a fabricated u bolt that did not meet specifications.

I had been climbing one of our towers in high winds out in the Las Vegas area a couple of days before that one came down. Helped me make the decision to quit climbing.
 
The survivors were very fortunate. These guys were not so lucky:

Dave

The Senior Road collapse was due to failure of a fabricated u bolt that did not meet specifications.

It’s also the quintessential case study of why climbers are NOT allowed on hoisted equipment anymore and why most of the time the tower must be cleared of non-essential personnel when hoisting antenna arrays into place.

There’s still a crap-ton of workers who’ll either ride antennas or stay on the tower to “save time” though, and about once a year it kills one of them.

The better tower management companies won’t allow it. They’ll throw a contractor that does it off of their site and tell them never to come back.

And I agree with the sentiment that one engineer had when he balled up in a ball and waited for death... I’ve seen hoisted antennas dropped and that’s bad enough. Freaking deadly game of lawn darts. Especially for the tag line guy or guys.

Never been present for a full tower collapse. Don’t ever want to be either. Have taken a few down safely and maneuvering tower sections coming down under control is bad enough.

For smaller towers a crane and a good operator are wonderful things, as compared to traditional jin-poling tower sections up or down.

Thankfully the worst injury I’ve seen was a dropped tool and a broken collar bone. Guy wasn’t wearing a hard hat that had a brim on it all the way around (“lineman’s hard hat”) which would have tossed the monkey wrench out to at least his shoulder or past it and probably avoided the broken bone.

He needed assistance off of the tower after that, of course. One of the best climbers and safety guys I know hustled down to him (he didn’t drop the tool) and explained how they’d get him off the tower with only one arm operating and do it quick enough that his other arm didn’t completely tire out. The tool dropped was mortified but got over it. Made sure he was strapped in, too. Even with a hard hat, it’s a hell of a wallop to the head when something hits it. But at least he didn’t die with a wrench sticking out of his skull.

Emergency rescue is one time where it’s into the realm of “okay” to rig up a pulley/hoist system to LOWER the injured person, depending on their injury or state of consciousness, as long as the rigging is done correctly.

Time is critical even if they were in fall arrest harnesses. The crush injuries to the inner thighs from a jerk during a fall arrest can kill you a couple hours later from internal bleeding.

Feel bad for these guys. Hope they weren’t doing anything stupid though.
 
Lots of stuff has changed since I quit climbing in 1983. The equipment has gotten a lot better and makes any fall recovery much easier and quicker. In those days we climbed with a simple belt and strap rig. I took a very short fall one day and hung upside down and tangled in the ladder for nearly a half hour until my partner came out of the transmitter shack to ask me something. Took him about 10 minutes to climb up and another 15 or so to rig a block to help me get uprighted. I was jackknifed over backwards and had one leg entangled in the ladder and the other wrapped up in the ladder’s safety cable. Didn’t have the strength to fold myself from hanging head down to at least upright enough to grab a ladder rung and pull myself upright .
Wasn’t a fun day and I looked like I’d been beat with a board the next morning.
 
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