24.03.2008

Tower crane kills two

We are still trying to find more facts from a tower crane collapse in Ekaterinburg, Russia that occurred on March 14th. We were first alerted to this accident by a reader who sent us the most gruesome news report footage we have ever seen.

We can now report that the crane, which was mounted on a free standing outrigger base had only been installed a week earlier and was in good working order.

For some reason it toppled over killing one man on the ground, Alexander Kalyalina and the operator Adik Hissametdinov. Two others were taken to hospital with bruises and fractures.
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The fallen crane

It seems that the accident is most likely caused by the shock failure of one or more cables which appear to have caused the jib to rise and then come crashing down sending shock waves through the crane breaking the tower suspension linkage causing the while structure to collapse.

After some deliberation we have elected not to publish any link to the video footage if you feel we are wrong on this decision we would be happy to hear from you. If you are interested in the footage for shock training purposes please contact us.