Investigators in New York City are focusing on what happened during the jump of a 205-ft-tall tower crane on March 15 when workers apparently lost control of a six-ton bracing collar at the 18th floor during installation. Seven people died and 24 were injured, several critically, in the ensuing accident. The tower tilted away from the structure under construction, slammed into the 15th-story parapet of a building across the street, broke into pieces and sent the cab and luffing jib flipping over and crashing down through smaller buildings on the next street.
Photographic evidence appears to point to a failure of nylon webbing temporarily supporting the collar with come-alongs during installation. Experts say nylon webbing is prone to abrupt failure when it has been damaged, and the kinds of damage that can lead to such failures may require a trained inspector to spot. Forensic experts are poring over the wreckage, trying to ascertain if such a failure triggered the event.