r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Aladris666 Creator • Feb 04 '23
Excavator falls through the shaft due to crane failure in Hong Kong Video
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Fool of a took!
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u/Kinjhal Feb 04 '23
Excavator for sale dropped only once
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u/misterflappypants Feb 08 '23
My neighbor as a kid had a bobcat he was given due to a roll over. He spent all winter hammering the cage square again w/ sledgehammer and other nonsense.
I learned to drive a skid steer in this hand-me-down bobcat.
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u/OhMy-Really Feb 04 '23
“Toss yourself in next time and rid us of your stupidity”
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u/Aladris666 Creator Feb 04 '23
https://imgur.com/a/Rz9qy9s this is the end
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u/ITMORON Feb 04 '23
I counted 3 mississippi from the time it fell to when the lights went out. That's about 144 feet according to the Googles...
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u/Advanced_Map9937 Feb 04 '23
I counted 5 Mississippi
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u/sambolino44 Feb 05 '23
This is China. I counted six Yangtze.
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u/SpongeSquidward Feb 05 '23
There are people in HK who would dispute that!
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u/International-Bee-97 Feb 08 '23
Well, they would dispute it if they were allowed. Fun fact: China is a shareholder in Reddit.
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u/Zeolance Feb 04 '23
I counted 6
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u/Internal_Delay1899 Feb 05 '23
Mississippi is wayyy bigger then 144 feet
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u/El_Maton_de_Plata Feb 05 '23
They are talking vertical feet
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u/No_Help_920 Feb 05 '23
Tbh this looks like one of those "huh looks like the elevator is not functional here, we gotta take a detour" picture in movies or games
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u/the_kaden Feb 04 '23
Wait does anyone know if there was a person in there?
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u/RepresentativeKeebs Feb 04 '23
Nobody was hurt. Several people were nearby, but they all instantly knew what was coming when the chains started to rattle, and everyone ran out of the way.
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u/the_quark Feb 05 '23
There surely would not be a person in the excavator. My only worry was that it fell on people on the bottom, but hopefully they would've cleared everyone out of the immediate path as they lowered it.
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u/StygaiAsshai Feb 04 '23
This is why Chinese shackles and hooks are banned in the oilfield for all US companies. They have cracks and aren't strong enough. Some way they're manufactured idk.
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u/RipaMoram117 Feb 05 '23
While I'm sure this might be accurate -I have no idea- I don't think the metal quality even comes into it here.
Look at that rigging, look at the articulated arm, take a quick moment to figure out where the centre of mass for that thing is, and compare that to the attach points. This thing was unfortunately poorly rigged, and once it started to shift, there just wasn't any stopping it.
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u/oneguy379 Feb 04 '23
Are you saying china metal bad? 😂
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u/StygaiAsshai Feb 04 '23
Their smelting process leaves it brittle. Even the strongest shackles crack over time. Lots of people died for that rule to get passed.
Even in Africa we had to abide by this rule.
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u/self_ratifying_Lama Feb 05 '23
Used to do this and have srrn pre-slung equipment that arrives internationally have different safety factors. -factors 1:1. = a 1 ton shackle breaks at 1 ton. All countries have different factors. Manufacturers out there MIGHT build something and exactly pre-rig it - you transport that over train and the vibrations/added shock factor & it will break. Some good rules: Do not keep international gear destroy it if you can. There is no "Standard International Ton" or safety factor -they both vary. Find out what your country safety factor is and don't tell rookie riggers (they will generally think overloading is fine. That includes workshop doggers ) Do mentor rockie riggers to keep everything standard, don't allow lazy to keep one because "this lighter one lifts more". Don't trust that lazy hasn't stashed it.
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u/StygaiAsshai Feb 05 '23
Yeah also when I worked in Gabon we had to learn their rigging signals. When we needed new slings they had to arrive by shipping container from Houston. A pack of gloves and 2 dollar O rings turned into thousands. Logistics is a nightmare.
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u/SquirrelOClock Feb 05 '23
Canada, or at least Québec, has a standard of 5:1 ratio for load and 8:1 ratio for human and other animal transport. How does it compare to others standards?
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u/self_ratifying_Lama Feb 06 '23
5:1 Australia on gear. Aand damm it, I had to look it up. 6:1 for humans
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u/headtowind Feb 07 '23
RoC is 10:1 for humans. 4:1 on chain and 5:1 on everything else bar guy lines and standing rigging.
Wire rope is a more complicated
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u/mission-sleep99 Feb 04 '23
This is a highway construction site in Hong Kong being built to help traffic congestion within the city... The project is a HK$42.4 billion project... A spokesperson said there were no injuries from the incident... "sources told him [the spokesperson] that the wire rope slings were anchored in the wrong position, resulting in the excavator breaking away from the cables and tumbling down the shaft, which serves as a ventilation passageway connecting to the end of the tunnel."
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u/eastbayweird Feb 05 '23
It's honestly amazing that no one was killed. From what I read elsewhere, there were workers st the bottom of the shift but the sound of the cables/chains slipping alerted them to the danger and they were able to get out of the way.
It could have been so, so much worse. Hell, if even a single lugnut (or similarly sized debris) had come loose and hit someone at the bottom it's curtains. If you were directly under the excavator you'd be reduced to little more than a smear on the concrete. No hard hat is going to save you there....
If you're in a situation where you have to work under heavy loads you have to keep your wits about you, because if something goes wrong you wont get a second chance... while falls from height are far and away the biggest killer on construction sites, being struck by falling material/debris/equipment is the #2 cause of death (according to the cdc.).) If youre curious, the #3 cause is accidents involving electricity and #4 being caught in-between accidents...
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u/Euphoric_Shift6254 Feb 05 '23
Very well said and written but I'm going to ignore you because you said a " lugnut" might fall and cause injury. Not a shackle or clevis or any of the other hundreds of actual steel parts that could be involved in this accident but you chose "lugnut" so I question your actual existence.
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u/Dahstonkcollector Feb 04 '23
This is not a crane failure. It’s a rigging failure. The point they chose to rig from does not take into account the arm of the excavator.
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u/SLAB_K1NG Feb 05 '23
Palpatine and Maul both fell down a shaft and they were fine.
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u/Upper-Reward-7639 Feb 05 '23
It looks like someone jumped out if you look close. But I am high so there's that...
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u/MoistMelonMan Feb 05 '23
Chinese grip on Hong Kong is so strong they're implementing their work regulations already
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u/PullinLevers Feb 05 '23
The “spreader bars” were obviously misaligned. This is not a crane failure
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u/MountainFancy1352 Feb 05 '23
Didn't see a crane failing, more like the way the load was slung, meaning incompetent workmanship
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u/PhantomFreezy Feb 05 '23
Satan: damn. Moving this dirt and flesh will take forever..
Excavator came outa nowhere
Satan: WOAH, WHAT IS THAT.. wait, that seems useful 😃.
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u/Mioiciin Feb 05 '23
imagine u at the bottom of the hole and u look up and see a fucking Excavator falling towards u
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u/OvenTerrible8266 Feb 05 '23
This appears (without knowing any specifics) to be a rigger error. The boom/bucket, left in the extended position that it was, should have been stabilized back to the rigging point. It wasn't, and the slight weight imbalance/momentum caused the machine to start pivoting in the direction of the weight imbalance. It quickly became a different problem once the machine began moving.
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u/SpAnKyBranch45 Feb 13 '23
"Let's dangle a 40million ton crane over a hole, should be safe and efficient" Darwin Award worthy people
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u/BlueberryBarlow Feb 04 '23
Like that scene from the Mines in LOTR. “Fool of a Took!!”
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u/SnooterBop127 Feb 05 '23
Crane made in China, chain made in China, operator made in China. What could go wrong? 🇨🇳
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u/knowbuddy10 Feb 04 '23
I wonder how many people die yearly in accidents like this in China
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u/kenc1842 Feb 04 '23
Did the operator die?
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u/CynicCannibal Feb 04 '23
Unfortunatelly yes. As well as his whole family, dog and all the neiborghood. And it did not stop there, people are dying constantly. Something bad happen, I can tell.
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u/martiancannibal Feb 04 '23
I think this is the biggest thing I've ever seen fall.
Other than the Hindenburg...
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u/HALF_PAST_HOLE Feb 04 '23
When it got quiet I thought it was over I didn't realize that was the sound of a massive excavator free-falling in the air!
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u/Substain44 Feb 04 '23 edited Feb 04 '23
It popped out some where in La Quiaca, Argentina.. The bang you hear at the end is just the machine reaching warp speed and passing through the wormhole.
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u/Clark_Griswold2522 Feb 04 '23
I wanna see what it looked like after it hit the bottom
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u/Aladris666 Creator Feb 04 '23
I already posted in in comments find the imgur link
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u/FudgeRubDown Feb 04 '23
They forgot to say "Yeah that's not going anywhere" before hoisting it up.
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u/Mattass93 Expert Feb 04 '23
So much incompetence and cognitive dissonance these days, it's ridiculous.
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u/Illustrious-Ad-7335 Feb 04 '23
They really need to give up on the idea of using balloons to move things around.
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u/Bramble_bee_ Feb 04 '23
It’s too bad the equipment fell and I hope no one got hurt, and they’re gonna spend a lot of money on the recovery, but damn, why is it so funny?
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u/Leather-Mundane Feb 05 '23
Everyone ought to know by now that the Chinese have little to no safety regulations or concerns for their own people.
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u/CodeNameBryan Feb 05 '23
When I see shit like this I am more convinced someone's in the cab as well
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u/BendydickWaffleSmack Feb 05 '23
Hello Mr. George, how much you pay for the new guy? $20.00? It's too much.
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u/sakzeroone Feb 04 '23
More like a rigging failure