09.11.2008

Stuck in the air

Two British Telecom engineers were stranded for over an hour last week at a height of around 15 metres after their boom lift broke down while working on a mobile telephone mast at Richmond College near London.
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The rescue is underway

The fire service was called out and arrived with a fire platform to rescue the two men. No information was available as to what caused the lift failed.

Vertikal Comment

One wonders what caused the accident, and why the men had to be rescued with a ladder platform rather than using the emergency lowering equipment/procedures.

It is of course not always possible to use the emergency descent, although it should be, we wonder if these two were aware of how to bring the unit down using the emergency descent equipment?

Unlike those working on a job site it was unlikely to that there would have been anyone remaining on the ground in this case. And one wonders if asking a passing member of the public to lower the lift is advisable. However you would have thought that members of the emergency services could have used the emergency lowering equipment?