Crane Collapse Kills Over 100 at World's Holiest Mosque In Mecca

Found these two short videos on youtube, one is just a generic filming of around the area, then the panic that ensues. The second is a longer range shot of he actual crane falling.

Notice in both videos you can see the rain and wind in full force, although it doesn't look all that terrible in comparison to if a hurricane or such were to hit an area like this. Granted I do not believe this has ever happened in the Middle East so their planning may just not include this type of weather scenario.





In any case a very tragic event, I have been following the construction of the area in and around the Mosque and Mecca itself just because it is a truly staggering project they are currently building.

Edit:

Here is another shot, of just after the impact:



Edit 2:

Some photos of the area, first is just for the scale of the Mosque project itself, remaining three are shots of the crane after it fell.

originally posted by: BELIEVERpriest
Its terrible that so many people died, but how could this be pure coincidence? The Holiest Islamic site on the 14th anniversary of 9/11 with construction materials funded by the Bin Laden family??? It's either conspiracy or divine judgement. I don't know which, and I mean no disrespect, but how could this just be a random event? Just no way, man.

But it could have been worse 10 days later will be the start of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage expected to bring 2 million people to Mecca.

Khaled Al-Maeena, editor at large at the Saudi Gazette in Jeddah, said the storm was so strong it uprooted trees and broke window panes throughout Mecca. The crane fell between times the mosque is crowded with people, he said.

"Had it happened an hour later it would have been much worse," he said. "Had it happened five hours earlier or four hours earlier, I think the death toll would have been more than a thousand.
www.cnn.com...

a reply to: CalibratedZeus

Thanks for posting those videos...that crane is absolutely huge.
Thank God, the Hajj hadn't yet started or the death toll would've been even more massive.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

Those videos above look like a bad Midwestern squall or bow echo thunderstorm. But if they aren't accustomed to that kind of weather there, then how would they prepare for it? It would be like preparing for a volcano in the state of Kansas. Sure, Yellowstone could go off ... but ... how many really prepare for that?

This is not my opinion, but, curiously, the opinion of one of the engineers for the Binladen construction group.
Naturally, they wan't to avoid any appearance of complicity for the disaster, by denying any responsibility for corporate error...However, his choice of words is curious.

It is also worth noting that this report comes out of India...and, I believe a number of the victims were from India, as well.

Mecca crane collapse `act of God`: Engineer

Mecca: The collapse of a construction crane that killed 107 people at Mecca`s Grand Mosque was "an act of God" and not due to a technical fault, an engineer for the developer said Saturday.

The massive red and white crane, which crashed into the court of the mosque during a rainstorm and high winds Friday, also injured around 200 people.

The engineer for Saudi Binladin Group, which is carrying out a massive expansion of the mosque, told AFP the crane, like many others on the project, had been there for three or four years without any problem.

"It was not a technical issue at all," said the engineer, who asked not to be identified.

"I can only say that what happened was beyond the power of humans. It was an act of God and, to my knowledge, there was no human fault in it at all."

zeenews.india.com...

Has anybody thought about the possibility of sabotage ?

So one of the Holiest sites of that wealthy religion didn't have a prophet, or pay the Weather Man tribute, to fore see a Big Bad Wolf huffin and puffing the temples down?

Any loss of innocent life is tragic. But #karma.

originally posted by: Specimen
So one of the Holiest sites of that wealthy religion didn't have a prophet, or pay the Weather Man tribute, to fore see a Big Bad Wolf huffin and puffing the temples down?

If you don't get that kind of weather in the area, then you don't get that kind of weather.

I live in landlocked areas, should we plan all our construction around hurricanes? And if someday a freak hurricane does happen ... should we blame people for not building with hurricanes in mind?

originally posted by: xuenchen
Has anybody thought about the possibility of sabotage ?

I questioned sabotage in my OP...but, so far, it hasn't really come up in the media as a possibility.
How controlled the scene is, by the Saudi government, I don't know.

originally posted by: IAMTAT
This is not my opinion, but, curiously, the opinion of one of the engineers for the Binladen construction group.
Naturally, they wan't to avoid any appearance of complicity for the disaster, by denying any responsibility for corporate error...However, his choice of words is curious.

It is also worth noting that this report comes out of India...and, I believe a number of the victims were from India, as well.

Mecca crane collapse `act of God`: Engineer

Mecca: The collapse of a construction crane that killed 107 people at Mecca`s Grand Mosque was "an act of God" and not due to a technical fault, an engineer for the developer said Saturday.

The massive red and white crane, which crashed into the court of the mosque during a rainstorm and high winds Friday, also injured around 200 people.

The engineer for Saudi Binladin Group, which is carrying out a massive expansion of the mosque, told AFP the crane, like many others on the project, had been there for three or four years without any problem.

"It was not a technical issue at all," said the engineer, who asked not to be identified.

"I can only say that what happened was beyond the power of humans. It was an act of God and, to my knowledge, there was no human fault in it at all."

Authorities are investigating the tragedy, which occurred as hundreds of thousands of Muslims from around the world were gathering for the annual hajj pilgrimage.

The engineer said the crane was the main one used on work to expand the tawaf, or circumambulation area around the Kaaba -- a massive cubed structure at the centre of the mosque that is a focal point of worship.

"It has been installed in a way so as not to affect the hundreds of thousands of worshippers in the area and in an extremely professional way," he said.

"This is the most difficult place to work in, due to the huge numbers of people in the area."

The crane`s heavy hook, which is able to lift hundreds of tonnes, began swaying and moved the whole crane with it, toppling into the mosque, the engineer explained.

A witness said the accident occurred during winds which were so strong they shook his car and tossed billboards around.

The development project is expanding the area of the Grand Mosque by 400,000 square metres (4.3 million square feet), allowing it to accommodate up to 2.2 million people at once.

Saudi Binladin Group belongs to the family of the late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

zeenews.india.com...

There, the Saudi BinLaden Group says it was an act of God.
Case closed.

a reply to: IAMTAT

The engineer for Saudi Binladin Group, which is carrying out a massive expansion of the mosque, told AFP the crane, like many others on the project, had been there for three or four years without any problem.
"It was not a technical issue at all," said the engineer, who asked not to be identified.
"I can only say that what happened was beyond the power of humans. It was an act of God and, to my knowledge, there was no human fault in it at all."

In perspective

Since 2000 - 872 Tower Crane Accidents causing over 668 Deaths along with countless injuries have occurred.
NOTE: These statistics focus specifically on construction related Tower Crane accidents only. They are for the most part serious incidents causing some kind of death/injury, collapse or damage.

10% = Mother Nature:

Wind & Earthquakes. Some of the “wind” related accidents may be due to the Operator not following proper shut-down procedures.

All too often, close-calls and unsafe practices seem to be the norm when working with tower cranes. Ask anyone who has been in the field for 30+ years and they would tell you with a shrug, it’s the “same as it ever was”. What makes this puzzling is that tower cranes are not complicated structures; their basic design, erection and operating principals have not changed much in decades.You would think that after so many years of executing these high risk procedures it would be honed down to a science, but this quite often not the case. So why, with all the hard lessons learned do elementary mistakes continue to plague the industry no matter the culture.

towercranesupport.com...
www.craneaccidents.com...
This shows weather
• Extreme Weather – 15 Incidents (18%)

WEATHER
Thunderstorms are the most severe precipitation observed during 77% of those days with precipitation. They are most likely around September 11, when it is observed during 6% of all days.
weatherspark.com...


So last question
How common are september rainbows in New York city?

A strong thunderstorm developed over Mecca at about 4 p.m. local time Friday (9 a.m. ET), bringing gusty winds that shifted direction and caused the local temperature to drop from 42 to 25 degrees Celsius (107.6 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit), CNN meteorologists reported.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

You want weather accidents ... there was a tornado that came through where they were doing construction on my alma mater. They had a tower crane, and it passed right alongside that bad boy, swung it in circles. But, it didn't come down. It did break into the outer casing of the campus research reactor though.

Anyone who has seen the footage, saw the monster sand storm surrounding that incident.

originally posted by: Vroomfondel
Any loss of innocent life is tragic. But #karma.

What karma(assuming you mean 9/11) it was a #FF.

lightning didn't bring it down....I'll get right back....gotta go look up a picture of the dragline....
a tower boom I guess....or a leibherr....let's see
.
took a while for the vids to appear....ok....it's a mobile tower.....had too much stick in it, looked like 180 feet of stick.....with 120 feet of boom......the operator left it un locked at the house dog, so he did his part. I ran these at Aztec crane in Dallas....we had 'em in florida in 1990 when a hurricane came through, still standing two days later...we had a discussion on whether or not to lock em from swinging or turning at the rotec...( the big bearing it pivots on )...so it's not a set rule....that operator is a seasoned pro now....
.
one fell in downtown Dallas ...fell between red lights....

.
of note....the wrong person was running the show allowing people in there, what great entity was running the job?....I have an opinion...the same one as the church chat lady

anyone questioned whether there really was lightning? so far there only is 1 photo (let's say lucky shot with lightning?).
the smudges on the photo at the light streaks tell that it was a shot made with a phone,
it really is difficult to get a good shot of lightning strike with a phone.
And if you compare the ambient surrounding light of the whole scenery on the photo at the moment of strike, with the video shot of that moment, the ambient light are quite different.

just my thoughts.

originally posted by: combatmaster
a reply to: IAMTAT

Im just saying... on 9/11, its kind of unbelievable!

What 1 chance in 365! Now if it happened on any significant date you could post the same thing :

"What a coincidence it occurred on the day Bin laden was killed"

Now how many "significant" dates do we have that can be related to a terrorist attack. ten a hundred ? Lets take a hundred, in which case the coincidence drops to just less than 1 in 4!

Now if you were to research stats and coincidences you would find that a lot of "wow" moments are nothing of the sort. This will take away a lot of mystery which (i used to) find enjoyable , however, it is replaced with a far deeper understanding of how common coincidence is. This will make you more of a skeptic and less a conspiracist though.

With the current situation in the ME and especially if this tragedy is proved not to be a pure accident, I can't help wondering if some foreign power, not necessarily the CIA and its allies, decided it was time to give the Saudis' a shot over the bows.

Just wondering as there are a lot of angry governments and industrialists out there at this moment because Saudi is interfering in a lot of other countries, both politically over oil and religiously over spreading wahadism? Its about the timing of this incident not speculation about coincidence

a reply to: Shiloh7

As was pointed out if the intent was to send a message, the timing could have been "better" with more people in the area impacted.