tower crane fire.

      You would think with all the past lessons learned, along with the growing personal liability being levied all the
      way up to the "top of the food chain", those in the tower crane industry would be on the straight and narrow - but
      this is not the case. In the tower crane world, "common practices" (currently lobbied as employer procedures)
      are regularly used when it comes to climbing, which are not based on an engineered analysis, but solely on the
      premise that it work without consequences in the past.

       Case in point:

       A Peiner - SK575 tower crane was to be climbed down for dismantle. The TSK climber support beam already
       had one missing bolt from the climb up, but that was of no concern the last climb or this climb - - too niether
       the crane vendors technician nor the climbing crew. So, as it often goes, the climb commenced regardless
       of imperfect conditions.

      picture for illustration only

       Continuing on, they gambled on another common practice which is to NOT re-install and tighten all mast bolts
       before putting the crane in an unbalanced condition - - which happens when the balance section is sent to the
       ground in order to retrieve the just extracted section from the tray. Increasing the stakes even more - - when
       re-connecting the tower section back to the TSK, yet another common practice of leaving the nuts way loose
       was also employed.

       On their third section - - their luck "almost" ran out!

       Due to the combination of the enormous reverse back moment when a tower crane has no load on it, along
       with not properly reconnecting the tower section back to the TSK section, i.e. not following manufacturer
       instructions. Moments after the balance section was disconnected on the ground - - the stress on the climber
       beam bolts was too great - and two of the left front climber beam bolts sheared off, jolting the crane backwards
        - - almost loosing the entire top structure!

       This not only over-stressed the remaining bolts on the TSK climber support beam, but quite possible the climber
       structure itself. The proper procedure after such an incident would have been to stop climbing operations,
       replace all bolts, and conduct a thorough examination of the climber structure. But that did not happen!

       With "only" one more tower section to be climbed out, and with now "only" three missing bolts (out of 8) on

       the climber beam - - this crew IRRESPONSIBLE GAMBLED again, and continued to climb one last section.
       Oh the Humanity!

       This is not a rare event; ignorance like this goes on more often than you are aware of, and by the hands of well
       known (so called) experts. The company involved in this incident is highly regarded in the industry and even active
       on crane safety committees. A warning to all that are passively standing by allowing pub-engineered procedures.
       You better hope I'm not contacted by the NEXT deceased plaintiff's lawyers!

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