02.01.2006

Cranes help plane

Imperial Crane services and Lifting Gear Hire joined forces to remove a Southwest Airlines plane from the intersection of West 55th Street and Central Avenue in Chicago. The plane (flight 1248 from Baltimore) had careered off of the end of the runway at Midway Airport on December 9th, in a snow blizzard, crushing two cars, killing a six year old boy and injuring others.

LGH supplied much of the rigging and used a Modulift 50 spreader beam to lift the nose of 737-700 which was then eased back through the airport perimeter fence and into a hanger for repair.
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The crane from Imperial crane services used Modulift spreader beams from LGH to raise the 737 nose allowing it to be towed back into the airport grounds

Ricky Bohne of Imperial Crane Services, Inc supervised the rigging at the site. “In order to move the plane, we set the Modulift beam at 13 ft (4.3m).

The top rigging included 25 ft (7.6m) 40,000 lbs (18,000kg) round slings, doubled. Two 12 ft (4m) round slings, each with a 66,000 lbs (30 tonne) capacity, were used on the sides.

In addition, we used 50ft (17m) 90,000 lb (40 tonne) round slings hooked to each landing gear for towing the plane backwards.

We were able to successfully move the airplane back over the curb, through the fence and into the hangar without creating any more damage, in about nine hours. Everything went as planned – timely and cautiously,” said Bohne.