CE 480
In
1982, a television station video crew was filming the raising of their new
television tower. The antenna was designed and manufactured by Antenna
Engineering, Inc., a moderately-sized local firm. Riggers, Inc., a small local firm,
was contracted to raise and assemble the antenna. During the initial design,
Antenna Engineering submitted antenna plans to Riggers for their approval.
Riggers approved the plans which provided for placement of the antenna hoisting
lugs. These lugs provided attachment points for lifting cables which would be
used for removing the antenna sections from the delivery truck, and for
hoisting the antenna into the air for final assembly on a 1000 foot tower. A
crew of riggers who had constructed such towers for many years was on-site. The
crew used a vertically-climbing crane mounted on the already constructed
portion of the tower to lift each new section of the tower, and finally, the
two-section antenna onto the top of the tower. The design called for a three-legged
tower, and as each new section was lifted, it was positioned and bolted onto
the previous tower sections, one piece at a time. The tower legs were solid
steel bars with 8 inch diameters. The tower sections weighed approximately
10,000 pounds and were each 40 feet long. They were raised without incident to
a height of about 1000 feet.
The
two final antenna sections arrived at the site and assembly proceeded as
planned, until the last antenna section was ready to be hoisted into position.
This section was different from the other sections of the antenna because it
had microwave baskets attached to the sides of the antenna. The placement of
the hoisting lugs allowed the antenna to be lifted horizontally off of the
delivery truck, but the baskets interfered with the lifting cables when the
antenna was rotated to a vertical position. A make-shift extension to the
lifting lug had to be fashioned by the riggers to permit the last section's
vertical hoisting. Unfortunately, on the day of videotaping during the hoisting
of this last section, something went wrong, and while the antenna was being
hoisted, the bolts on the make-shift lifting lug extension failed. The result
was a tragedy. Several riggers fell 1000 feet to their death.
The
video camera caught this catastrophe on film, and through its footage,
investigators were able to discover where the failure initiated, and why the
accident occurred. The case of the antenna tower collapse raises serious
questions about the design engineer's social responsibility to ensure safety on
the construction site, and poses additional questions about product liability
issues in engineering and ethics.
Ethical issues raised by the case involve (1) social
responsibility versus legal liability, (2) engineering responsibility for failed innovation, (3) problems associated with design
implementation, (4) liability and
negligence issues
Ethical
Issues Of The Case - Points for Discussion
1)
Where does the responsibility of Antenna Engineering end and Riggers begin? Should
Antenna Engineering have provided adequate hoisting lugs in their original
design?
2)
Should Riggers have looked at the original design more carefully?
3)
Should Antenna Engineering have allowed Riggers to remove the microwave
baskets?
4)
Should Riggers have devised their own hoisting solution without consulting an
engineer? What is their responsibility for contracting a consulting engineer?
5)
Should Antenna Engineering have recommended another consulting engineer to
assist Riggers? Should they have notified their professional society? Was it
ethical for the engineers at Antenna to wash their hands of the project without
attempting to find a resolution for Riggers? What other measures could they
have taken to assist Riggers without becoming legally entangled?
6)
Should Antenna Engineering have refused to review the new hoisting design?
7)
If social responsibility comes before legal liability, surely there were other
things Antenna Engineering could have done.