26.08.2023
Dropped tower
A crane helping dismantle a wind turbine that caught fire in Hull last year has dropped one of the tower sections.
The incident occurred last week, and involved a large Ainscough telescopic crane, rigged with luffing jib. The word we have is that a hoist rope failed causing the tower section it was lifting to drop, however that has not been confirmed. The tower section remained upright on landing. The area under the load had been completely cleared and no one was hurt, and damage was minimal to zero. The only photo we have received was taken from the other side of the river and shows little.
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Ainscough has though provided us with the following statement:
“One of our large mobile cranes was involved in an incident when lowering a wind turbine tower section to ground. Fortunately, due to good safety practices no one was within the lifting exclusion zone. No damage was incurred, other than to the tower section itself and the crane is now removed from service whilst undergoing detailed inspection with the manufacturer.”
“Whilst we are in the very early stages of the investigation, initial findings suggest that there was no defect of the crane or equipment that contributed to the release of the load. Our investigation is ongoing, and we will review all contributory factors in detail.”
“We will share our findings with industry bodies and manufacturers to mitigate future reoccurrence.”
The following video clip shows the removal of the nacelle taking place last month.
Crane lads
Crane owner
The Force
Wondered when this was going to come out, squeaky clean ACH do have accidents it would appear, I would not jump to conclusions but there is not much that can go wrong here, 1 hoist rope reeved wrong, ie over a retaining bar, 2 core centre of hoist rope rotten, although in ACH defence they are on top of their game regards routine inspection 3 possible load clash with hoist rope. main thing is all ok and no injuries. but interesting to see outcome.
LTD
Under CPA terms of hire, if the hoist rope has snapped, is it the hirers responsibility for damages to the crane or is it the crane owners responsibility?