[sammyg2]

BTW, I watched a 50 ton RT crane similar to that last one get dropped once.

It was at san Onofre nuke plant, we were overhauling one of the turbines (million and a half HP).

We had a small crane like that one up on the deck to make small picks so the big crane wouldn't be tied up, IIRC it was rated for around 250 ton.

When the job was wrapping up one of the last jobs was to fly everything down off the deck, including that RT crane.
There was about 150 people employed for the overhaul but we were down to the last 8 of us after lay-offs and we were on the rigging crew that day.
The head rigger wore an orange vest and his work was final, no one argued with him or you got the axe. He was an ex-navy SEAL also.

He gave instructions to rig and fly down the RT crane, and i said: Don't you want us to fly down the stowed jib separate?

He said no, just extend the outriggers and choke them with these 50' long endless 2" slings.

I asked what kind of softeners he wanted us to use, he said just get some old cardboard boxes and use them.

This would be a good time to point out that outriggers have machined beams with fairly sharp corners.
RT cranes also have designed and engineered picking eyes to use when lifting, but the stowed jib was in the way. so it would naturally be flown down separately.
And cardboard was NOT as approved softener material.

That's when I told him I was having stomach cramps and needed to hit the bathroom right away and left the lift site.

i went down a couple hundred yards and watched from the smoke pen as they lifted the crane and got it about 5 or 10 feet up, before it went BANG a couple times and his the deck. it blew out the tires, bent the boom, and totaled the crane. It also tripped unit 2 off-line which was a bad thing.

The next day we were called into the office one by one and interviewed by OSHA and the NRG.

They asked me what happened, I said I dunno, I went to the bathroom!

The head rigger and superintendent got fired from bectel and banned from working at a nuke plant in the US for a number of years, not sure how many.

And there were lots and lots of procedures and paperwork developed because of that incident.