MIDTOWN MIRACLE
Giant air-con unit plunges 30 floors 10 hurt, none badly, as strap breaks
A CRANE HAULING an air conditioner to the top floor of a 30-story building in Midtown dropped the heavy load Sunday morning, smashing parts of the building and injuring 10 people.
Workers were loading the shipping-container-sized machine into a mechanical room at 261 Madison Ave. when a rigging strap broke, a city official familiar with the ongoing investigation told the Daily News.
The conditioner bashed a hole near the roof, then sheared off chunks of the building as it fell at 10:43 a.m. Debris rained down on Madison Ave. near E. 38th St.
Mayor de Blasio said 10 people on the ground were hurt — two of them construction workers — but the injuries were not serious, and they were treated at Bellevue Hospital and NYU Langone Medical Center.
Seemingly everyone on the scene was astonished the accident had not ended in tragedy.
“Thank God this occurs at this hour, on a weekend, when there were not many people around,” de Blasio said at the scene, promising a full investigation of the “serious incident.”
FDNY Assistant Chief Ronald Spadafora agreed. “We lucked out on this,” he said. Perhaps no one was luckier than Gregory Welch, 51, and his wife, Priscilla, 49, who were driving through the one lane of traffic open alongside the crane when the air conditioner landed about 20 yards from their car.
“God is good,” Gregory Welch said.
Workers and other passersby were also counting their blessings.
One construction worker said he and several co-workers saw the crane lose its footing when the rig snapped loose.
“We heard a loud explosion. It was like a movie. It’s a miracle none of us got seriously hurt,” said the worker, who did not give his name.
Ibrahim Schovic, 20, was on his shift as a security guard in the building across the street when he heard the thunderous crash.
“A piece of concrete hit me in the back of the head,” he said, touching his injury. Schovic and another bystander made a run for it through the back of the building.
“He looked really scared. He kept yelling ‘Help! Help!’ ” Schovic recalled. “It’s the scariest day of my life.”
Holly Moore, 51, said she and her friend were riding bikes on Madison Ave. when the debris fell.
“Stuff from the building was falling from the sky. People were screaming,” she said.
Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler said the crane was in “good working order.” Investigators were trying to determine whether the accident was caused by operator error or a mechanical flaw.
On May 4, the Buildings Department approved a permit for Skylift Contractor to operate a 375-foot crane at the site to lift a chiller to the top floors of the building, records show.
The permit said the device was to be placed on the 29th or 30th floor.
The building had no open violations relating to safety on file with the city.
Skylift owner Brad Allecia could not be reached for comment.
The trendy Japanese restaurant Zuma is on the ground floor of the building, and was closed at the time of the accident.
Other tenants are Signature Bank, advertising firm PriMedia and AFTRA insurance, according to a website for the Sapir Organization, which owns the building.
Meredith Kelly, 50, said that when the machinery hit the ground she had only one thing on her mind: run.
“Your first thought was you want to be as far as you can,” she said. “It was really intense. Lots of smoke. We’re grateful to be alive.”
Police blocked traffic between 34th and 42nd Sts. and Park and Fifth Aves. De Blasio said authorities hoped to have the area completely open to traffic by the Monday rush.
Last year, city Controller Scott Stringer issued a report that found the city had only implemented eight of 65 safety reforms to prevent other crane disasters.
The call for new measures came in 2008, when two separate crane collapses killed nine people.
“With so much construction going on in our city, today’s event makes it clear that more has to be done, and that safety must be our top priority,” a Stringer spokesman said.
“New Yorkers need to be able to walk the streets without fear.”
That message resonated with Christina Collins, 35, who lives a block away from the accident.
“I walk by here all the time,” she said.
“It’s really scary to live in the neighborhood when things like this happen.”
A visitor from Austin, Tex., remarked on the New York-minute aspect of the incident.
“New York is upgrading and, wow, you can walk down the street and not know what hit you,” said Susan Post, 68.