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UPDATE:

A while back we post this incident photo of two large gantry cranes collasping under strong winds at Jaxport.  Well Thanks to Fred Frey in this Maritime Monday and TugboatLife.com for pointing us towards video of this incident, which is now circulating the web.  I think TugboatLife nailed it by saying “looks like a starwars scene.”  Let’s take a look…

August 13, 2008: From what appears to be the result of strong winds whipping through the area, a 125 ft., 950-ton container crane collapsed, slamming into a second crane of the same size.  Both cranes crumbled to the ground in a heap of twisted metal, damaging a third crane.

The cranes, located on Jaxport’s Blount Island Marine Terminal in Jacksonville Fl., cost an estimated $6M each.  Luckily, no injuries were reported.

Investigators are looking further into the incident, as the cranes have withstood tropical storms for 25 years without a hitch.

For more information on this and other maritime incidents, check out Cargolaw.

Our good friend Captian Koos sent us this photo of the May 30th Jumbo Crane Collapse at the Hudong-Zhonghua Shipbuilding in Pudong China.

Lloyds List Reports:

Sources said columns on the cranes buckled and collapsed at about 0025 hours on today. Two security guards were injured, one critically, and both were taken to a local hospital.

While the accident prompted concern that one of the dry docks at the yard could be out of action for up to six months, industry insiders have already suggested that the shipbuilder would try to spread work among its other facilities to mitigate delays.

The Hudong-Zhonghua group has four shipbuilding facilities including Shanghai Edward Shipbuilding, at Pudong, Punan and Fuxing.

They include a dry dock capable of building very large crude carriers, a 120,000 dwt floating dry dock and five shipbuilding berths for vessels up to 20,000 dwt, 70,000 dwt and 120,000 dwt. The shipbuilder has eight 100 tonnes capacity cranes working at its shipbuilding facilities.

One source said: “The accident is potentially crippling for the shipbuilder. But until a proper assessment can be carried out and executives can review how much work can be carried out by other facilities it is difficult to comment on how much impact the accident will have on production.”

UPDATE

The AP is now reporting 36 confirmed casualties:

Rescuers have found more bodies in the wreckage of a 600-ton crane that collapsed at a Shanghai shipyard, raising the death toll to 36, the official Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday.
The crane collapsed Tuesday as it was being raised at the Shanghai Hudong Shipyard, causing a column to fall on a group of 30 laborers. Three people are hospitalized with injuries and two others were treated and released, according to Xinhua.

The shipyard says the cause of the accident is under investigation.

Shanghai, China’s biggest port, is a major center for shipbuilding and repairs. The Hudong yard, opened in 1928, is one of the city’s biggest

Here is the PDF with details and photos: [Continue Reading →]

Hot on the heels of our featured stories “5 Most Ambitious Bridge Designs of Today” and “Windoc Incident - Story Behind YouTube’s Most Chilling Video” our digg friend msaleem points us to this post titled. “Most Horrific Bridge Collapses of Past 100 Years”

The article contains many pictures and can be found HERE.