Had a main hoist cable let go on me last Thursday morning

We were lifting a 12-ton HVAC unit onto a roof in Boise when the cable snapped about 15 feet off the ground. I hit the emergency stop and the load settled on the building's parapet wall, thank god. Has anyone else had a cable fail like that, and what's your go-to inspection routine now?

4 comments

4 Comments

ryanj101mo ago

Holy cow, a twelve ton unit?! That's insane it only fell fifteen feet! You must have had a guardian angel on site that day. I'd be checking every inch of cable for kinks or fraying before every single lift after a scare like that. Honestly, just reading that made my heart jump into my throat.

norag871mo ago

Honestly the steel deck slowing it down is the only reason it wasn't a total disaster. That much weight from that height should have been way worse. Just pure luck.

michael_williams1mo ago

Yeah, @ryanj10, the guardian angel was probably the steel deck it landed on. It punched right through but that slowed it down a lot. What kind of rigging setup were they even using for a twelve ton pick? I'd want to know the exact cable type and who did the last inspection.

garcia.mila2d ago

Twelve tons falling fifteen feet is a crazy amount of force. I can't even picture the cable snapping, like what kind of sound would that even make? It must have been a huge bang. The fact the deck caught it at all is wild, that steel must have been thick. I'd be looking up who made those cables and never using them again lol.