16.09.2015
Negligence and weather caused Mecca crane overturn
An initial report into last week’s tragic crane incident at the Grand Mosque in Mecca has indicated that it was caused by a combination of negligence and strong winds.
The report presented to the King, suggests that the manufacturer’s instructions for rigging and making the LR 11350 safe when out of use, were not followed, and that the crane was left in a vulnerable position in the face of strong winds hitting the crane in the worst possible position.
As a result the Royal Court has barred all members of the board of directors of the Binladin Group, as well as Bakr bin Mohammed bin Ladin, other senior executives and other people connected with the project, from leaving the kingdom while the investigation is ongoing. The court has also suspended the company from taking on any new projects in the kingdom until the results of the investigation are published.
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The day after the incident
The announcement also said: “The king is reviewing the report of the Accident Investigation Committee, which suggested negligence on the part of the Saudi Binladin Group, but concluded that it found an absence of criminal suspicion. The main reason for the accident is the strong winds while the crane was in a wrong position.”
It now seems that a total of 111 people died, while 331 were injured in the incident that occurred on September 11th .
Click here to see Death Toll exceeds 100 in Mecca crane overturn
Sprague
More than 1 tower crane was not in weather vane
my sympathy is with all of the injured and the families of those who died but i cannot believe an operator of such a crane could leave it in such a position ( no free slew etc ) knowing the foretasted winds and storms were due, I am sure that all of the surrounding tower crane were?