12.11.2010
Crane flips in Budapest
An All Terrain crane owned and operated by the Budapest Fire department turned over on Wednesday while lifting artwork into Buda castle.
The crane a four axle Tadano Faun ATF 60-4, working over the rear, had just lifted a crate of Munkácsy paintings in to the castle by way of its large balcony.
One front outrigger beam, the least beneficial one for the lift, was fully extended, while the rear one on the same side was partially extended. The two outrigger beams on the opposite side were set up fully retracted in order to avoid damaging the grass.
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The crane lifts the laden crate from its transport
Thankfully the paintings, the Christ Trilogy by Mihály Munkácsy had already been removed from the crate. It is thought that wind caught the crate as it was removed from the balcony, and when combined with the amount of boom extended created enough of a side load to pull the crane over onto its side. The boom nose came to rest in the middle of a parked car. Once again luck played a part in that the car was unoccupied.
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As it removed the empty crane it went over
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The outriggers were only extended on one side
Munkácsy is one of Hungary's greatest painters, his three huge Christ Trilogy paintings Christ Before Pontius Pilate, Golgotha and Ecce Homo, were painted between 1882 and 1896. The paintings are owned by an American collector John Wannamaker.
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The boom nose came to rest on a parked car
Good Morning Mr Editor,
As Mr J.J. Curran will confirm, Luck has got nothing whatsoever to do with this potentially Fatal Crane Incident above in Bucharest. For this is yet another example of Negligence, arising from a Lack of Know How on the part of the Crane Operator and the Crane Driver.
Rigging a Crane, any crane of any type with one more Outriggers not fully extended out and down divides the vertically imposed load in an unequal manner between all of the outriggers. This is wrong and fundamentally unsafe and sets the Crane up for a fall, even before the load is lifted.
So please, please, No more limp excuses about " Not wanting to damage the Grass" : Because if the Crane, all cranes cannot be Rigged correctly first time, every time, then they should not be rigged at all. Luck plays no part whatsoever in these matters at all, for this is all about a lack of Training on the part of the Employer and a Total failure to Plan the Lift beforehand, starting with a simple Risk Assessment of all Hazards involved in this lift by the Appointed Person in charge of the lift.
PPPPPP is the motto that all Crane Drivers should have at the forefront of their minds 24/7, as Good Safe Crane Drivers already know what it means...and luck plays no part whatsoever in Safe Lifting Operations, its Know How that matters.
Kind Regards
Mike Ponsonby BA.
HLsup.
Some of the outriggers beams were not fully extended and used the "fully extended outrigger beam program"? Why the cranedriver didn't moved the crane a litle bit to the left? So he could have used de "half outrigger beam program.
Marc