Maintenance at 1700 feet

[Paul Franklin]

Yikes, those guys even get off the chopper onto the lines!!!!

In the article I have, they just work from the chopper.

NFW I say, N--F--W!!

Thanks for the link, that's a keeper.

Paul F.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I was wondering why the guys were not wearing a chute of some sort. Aside from the size that could be a problem, it would be a good safety precaution at that height.

[Jon Danniken]

My guess is doing anything out of the ordinary, like sticking a camera on your head and the clip ending up on youtube. It just speaks to a younger generation, more concerned with their gadgets and gizmos, than it does to the small community of mast workers.

If nothing else, it is the appearance of being cavalier.

But remember, that is just the opinion of the guy who was climbing the mast. He obviously takes his job very seriously, and does not want himself misinterpreted in anything other than a professional manner, hence his apprehension, and subsequent request to have the video taken down.

Jon

[Larry Fishel]

Ummm, yeah... Imagine catching your ripcord on something up there and having the chute open unexpectedly... (Imagine what the wind is like on a GOOD day up there.)

Besides, if you fell, you'd probably be impaled on something before you could open the chute to have it shredded by the tower anyway...

I think the part that worried me most was when he got to the very top. It looked like he just leaned against the pole and let go with both hands to get his carabiner. Can you say "wind gust"? I knew you could...

[Robert Green]

I dunno. In the few serious car crashes I've been in, time really does s-l--o---w----d-----o------w------n tremendously. I can remember the car spinning in slow motion, the doors blowing open, stuff on the seat next to me rising up in the air like it was weightless and floating, not flying, out the open doors. I remember seeing bright white lights, then bright red lights, then white lights again as the car spun, facing away from traffic (red tail lights) and then towards it (white headlights). It was remarkably slow. The car was totalled, but I didn't have a scratch on me.

A poem by the guy who wrote "Deliverance" (the "squeal like a pig" movie), James Dickey, is about a stewardess who gets sucked out of a plane at high altitude and the thoughts she has on the way down. It's called "Falling."

Dickey used to guest lecture at my uni - until his drinking became too serious for the administrators to ignore. As someone said "He drank oceanically." Those southern boys can really do some world class drinking.

I am surprised OSHA lets these guys free-climb considering the regulations they impose on window washers for office buildings. My dad, who used to be a forensic engineer, investigated many window washer accidents. Quite a few were sabotage jobs from rival firms (there are allegations that in big cities like NYC there's a big mob influence in the janitorial services industry) but many were just plain stupidity like tying the motorized scaffold to an AC unit that wasn't bolted down and thus slowly walked to the edge of the roof as they were washing and got pulled off the building and right on top of them. Those poor guys. Their fall was only a few stories but soon after they hit the ground, the huge AC unit came hurtling down on them. That's got to be a REALLY bad day.

Another time, one of the ropes on one side failed and the whole scaffold broke free, and one of the workers was left swinging about 10' off the ground in a huge arc, getting dragged through all the treetops at the base of the building. He was scratched up badly but survived with only a broken ankle, which had gotten caught in the rigging and probably saved his life.

I suspect when something goes wrong on a 1,700 foot tower, the certain outcome is "splat." I'm betting there's some serious evisceration as a result of such an impact. I've seen what happens when Letterman tosses watermelons off the NBC building. Vertical motion quickly becomes horizontal splattering.

-- Bobby G.