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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) - Two men were killed and a third injured Thursday afternoon when a television tower they were working on collapsed in Huntsville, police said.

Huntsville police spokesman Wendell Johnson said the three men were several hundred feet up into the 985 feet high tower when it collapsed.

The cause of the accident was under investigation. The weather was calm and not believed to be a factor in the collapse.

Two died crushed in the rubble of the tower and the third was critically injured.

Witnesses said the three were tied to positions in the tower and unable to escape.

Johnson said the three men were not employees of the station, WAAY. He said the three had been hired to strengthen the tower on Monte Sano, a mountain overlooking the city, when the 1 p.m. accident occurred.

The tower is owned by SpectraSite.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-09-04-03 1540EDT

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Posted by Sam Hunter (Member # 1119) on 09-04-2003, 04:55 PM:
 
Unfortunate

Just goes to show you that you have to be extremely careful on those things.
 

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Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 09-04-2003, 05:04 PM:
 
That's tragic.

Just a couple of days ago here in Olympia a worker was killed in a huge explosion at a gas station/convenience store. He was working on an underground gasoline tank when it suddenly exploded (it was empty!) and hurled him into the air. He was killed instantly and the explosion ripped all his clothing off. He was an employee of an underground tank repair firm from Portland, Oregon. All this happened just two miles from my apartment.
 

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Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 09-04-2003, 06:50 PM:
 
How ironic that they died trying to strengthen the tower, presumably to prevent just such a collapse that might endanger other lives.

Such maintenance can carry risks that we never think about until such a catastrophe makes us aware of everyday heroism...
 

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Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 09-04-2003, 08:30 PM:
 
Actually empty gas tanks are more dangerous than full ones, and more likely to ignite. The 747 over the Atlantic a few yers ago is the best example of that. Gas fumes are far more prone to ignite than kerosene type jet fuel.
Mark
 

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Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 09-04-2003, 08:55 PM:
 
I wonder if the tower climbers used a dynomometer to check the guy wire tension if the tower was not a "free standing" tower.

At KXRO in Aberdeen Washington (when I was there) the tower people detected the tower was slightly twisted. It was a free standing tower. They did not climb it. Instead, a new tower was built, and the old tower was pulled down. We had to put the station on autopilot, and all personnel evacuated. The tower people had a reasonable chance the tower would land where it was supposed to, but due to the condition of the tower, they were not sure. So all safety precautions were followed - to the letter.
 

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Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-05-2003, 01:30 AM:
 
Most engineers who work on transmission towers are usually supposed to get "danger pay" for climbing those things. At least that was the case at the TV station where I worked in Georgia.

Tower collapses can be really dangerous considering some may be near residential areas. The north side of Oklahoma City has a bunch of high rize broadcast towers. It's kind of eerie looking at night with all those red lights slowly pulsating on and off. Amarillo, TX has a similar collection of towers.

Concerning gas station tanks and pumps, people take these things for granted and take dangerous chances. Here in Oklahoma a lady burned to death while pumping gas into her vehicle. She wasn't smoking or anything foolish like that. All she did was get into her vehicle to retrieve something and come back out to grab the pump handle. The trip into the vehicle gave her body a static charge. When she touched the pump handle it ignited the gas fumes. She panicked, pulling the handle out of the vehicle with the gas still flowing! The lady effectively had a flamethrower torching her part of the station. The incident was caught on videotape and happened very quickly.

In spite of the dangers of static charge, many gasoline companies and convenience stores are dragging their feet to place warning signs on pumps.
 

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Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 09-05-2003, 02:37 AM:
 
I don't understand why some people want to pull into a station for gas and not turn the engine off. Makes me nervous when people do that.

A car with a full tank of gas is less likely to explode than a car near empty if it is involved in a rear end collision.
 

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Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 09-05-2003, 09:36 AM:
 
My father and I were at a bakery in a shopping plaza once when we looked out the window and saw a pickup truck with its hood area on fire driving down the road. What does the idiot do? PULL INTO THE GAS STATION IN THE SHOPPING PLAZA!!!!

We grabbed our things, got in the car and got the hell out of the area, not even looking back to see what was about to happen. Luckily, there was no explosion and no injuries, just frazzled nerves.

People take a lot of potentially dangerous places and/or situations for granted. Until something happens, then there are blanket knee-jerk reactions as if they're trying to prevent what already happened.

=TMP=
 

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Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 09-05-2003, 01:37 PM:
 
It collapsed because it was tired of transmitting the ABC logo on every damn frame!
 

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Posted by James R. Hammonds, Jr (Member # 673) on 09-05-2003, 02:36 PM:
 
Hahahaha!
Oh, now that's funny Jesse!
 

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Posted by Charles Everett (Member # 889) on 09-05-2003, 04:37 PM:
 
According to today's Huntsville Times, the 3 workers were installing digital equipment on the tower for WAAY's upgrade to digital TV. Two of the workers were killed instantly and the third died in hospital.

The Times also reported that the tower came within 15 feet of crashing into the WAAY studios. WAAY came back on the air from a standby antenna in time for the NFL game last night.
 

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Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 09-05-2003, 05:22 PM:
 
I worked at WAGA in Atlanta. The tower is standing about 30 feet from the back of the building. It is fast approaching 40 years of age. It is maintained yearly, or was when I was there.

The roof of the building is 18-20" thick. In the winter, ice forms on the tower and guy wires. When it falls, it causes damage to everything including the building and parking lots.

The local station here in Asheville, WLOS, has a small tower on top of Mount Pisgah in Haywood County. It has 3 legs and no guy wires. There is going to be a new digital antenna installed beside the current one. That is, if they can get the permits. Mount Pisgah is in the National Forest and many locals are fighting the new antenna location. Many people want the current tower removed, too.

I have worked with some of the WAAY-TV crew. Good people. Professional. I'm very sorry for the techs that were killed. They are a special breed. I will never climb a tower again. I went up about 25 feet on the 400' tall tower that WZTV-TV in Nashville, TN used until about 1977. I'd a sworn that I was up higher than that. Even harder to come back down.
 

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Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 09-05-2003, 10:23 PM:
 
We have a "Paran??" tower system at KAPS AM 660. It cosists of four towers formed in a square plot with cross-wires at the top. The tower bases are grounded and the RF conductors go up the middle of each towers and connects to the cross-wires.

Anyway, a crow plowed into one of the towers and apparently hit the conductor and promptly fried the crow like one would expect to happen in a microwave. It didn't blow the transmitter off.

What is funny about this is that there is a fried crow wedged in the tower about 30 feet off the ground. If you think I am going to climb that tower to remove the crow, you are nuts!

That's what we have professional tower techs for. The boss understands....But I think he was hinting that he wanted me to remove the crow.... No way!!!
 

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Posted by Don Furr (Member # 1469) on 09-06-2003, 07:02 AM:
 
Hey Bruce........
WAGA took down that old tower a couple of years ago and replaced with one of the multi-antenna types. It's a bit taller (and wider base) than the old one and moved "away" from the studios. The old stick wouldn't hold the newer digital "stuff".

Don
 

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Posted by Jeff Stricker (Member # 224) on 09-06-2003, 07:08 AM:
 
Hi Paul,

You wouldn't have a picture of that antenna system to share? I wonder how far appart the four towers are? It must be some sort of a shunt fed vertical arrangement and sounds intersting...

Jeff
 

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Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 09-06-2003, 07:09 AM:
 
Thanks for the update, Don. Is WGNX (CBS) still using that old tower with 3 sticks on top? I worked there when it was WANX, a CBN station...

I'll check out WAGA the next time I visit Atlanta. It's been 2 years since I was there last.
 

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