Two men fell to their death on Monday in Ankara, Turkey when the platform of the twin masted mastclimber they were working from fractured in the centre.
They fell from the 12th floor of 15 storey building which was nearing completion in Ankara's Mamak district. The two men were cousins, Emrah and Nedim Akbay.
Emergency responders arrived promptly, but there was nothing they could do and the two were declared dead at the scene. Local safety inspectors halted all work on the site and have launched an investigation into what happened.
There has been talk locally that the platform should not have been longer than eight metres, while it was 12 to 14 metres. We have been unable to confirm or even get an independent second source for this claim. Another input we have received said that this mastclimber had been working for several months and was well within allowable specification. So, we can only ignore such comments at this point. There are several other issues, of course, that could have caused such a failure.
Sadly, if they had ben wearing harnesses with lanyard connected to the platform they might have stood a chance of survival.
Diego Benetton
No harness is requested on MCWP