This is a list of catastrophic collapses of broadcast masts and towers.
Masts and towers can collapse as a result of natural disasters, such as storms and fires; from engineering defects; and from accidents, sabotage and bendover.
Location | Date | Mode of construction | Height (meters) |
Reason for collapse | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
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September 17, 1901 | 20 wooden poles arranged in a circle | 64 | Storm | Identical design to South Wellfleet installation. Replaced by four free-standing wooden lattice towers |
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November 25, 1901 | 20 wooden poles arranged in a circle | 64 | Storm | Identical design to Poldhu installation. Replaced by 4 free-standing wooden lattice towers. |
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December 5, 1906 | Guyed steel tubular mast | 128 | Storm | Used for transatlantic communication with Brant Rock, Massachusetts, U.S. Never replaced. |
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March 30, 1912 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 200 | Storm | Was the oldest continuously operating radio transmitting installation in the world. |
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1923 | ? | ? | Lightning | |
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November 25, 1925 | Guyed steel lattice mast | ? | Storm | Three towers collapsed |
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July 1926 | Guyed mast on roof top | ? | Guy cable rusted through | |
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1927 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 210 | Collapse at construction | |
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November 23, 1930 | Free standing wood lattice tower | 75 | Storm | Two towers snapped off 25 metres above ground |
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October 10, 1935 | Free standing wood lattice tower | 150 | Tornado | Replaced by triangle antenna |
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November 21, 1938 | Storm | |||
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1939 | Free standing wood lattice tower | 90 | Lightning | Replaced by steel tower |
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November 7, 1940 | Free standing lattice tower | 113 | Storm | |
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1949 | Guyed steel tube mast | 51 | Storm | Two masts of a triangle aerial |
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February 10, 1949 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 120 | Storm | |
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December 1949 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 198 | Storm | Partial destruction of a guyed mast under construction |
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November 30, 1953 | Guyed steel tube mast | Aircraft collision | Former Michigan Governor Kim Sigler, who was piloting the plane, and three passengers were killed. | |
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March 11, 1955 | Steel lattice mast | Windstorm | WENS television. The lower part of the tower is still visible and in use. | |
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1955 | Sabotage | Destroyed by EOKA rebels | ||
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April 3, 1956[4] | Guyed steel lattice mast | 100 | Aircraft collision | Hit by a B-29.[4] |
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January 1958 | Guyed steel tube mast | 50 | Ice | Replaced by concrete tower |
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May 29, 1959 | Guyed steel tube mast | 224 | Storm with 105 kt winds[5] | Top 150 m of the tower toppled. Replaced within three months by a mast 251 m tall. |
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1960 | Guyed lattice steel mast | 491 | Storm | Replaced by new mast of same height |
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1961 | Lattice Tower | 191 | Storm | Tower buckled at 2/3 of height. Tower carried radials (wires attached radially in a horizontal plane) on its top although it was not designed for them. |
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December 10, 1961 | Guyed steel lattice mast | ? | Terrorism | |
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1962 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 190 | Material fault | Slip of guy |
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October 12, 1962 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 180 | Storm | Columbus Day Storm of 1962 |
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July 27, 1964 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 411 | Material fault | Replaced by a 214 m (704 ft)) tall mast radiator |
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1964 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 305 | Collapsed during construction | |
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1965 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 411 | Maintenance work | The collapsing mast also destroyed the transmitter building. Six persons were killed. |
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1965 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 200 | Structural failure during guy wire tension testing | |
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February 14, 1968 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 628 | Helicopter collision | |
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March 3, 1966 | Guyed steel lattice | 487 | F5 tornado | Replaced with 609.3 m tower which collapsed in 1997 |
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April 1, 1966 | unknown | 411 | Unknown | [6] |
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September 28, 1966 | ? | 200 | Hurricane Kristen | Replaced with a temporary tower; station relocated to Yucuribampo Hill |
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November 17, 1966 | Guyed tubular steel mast | 290 | Storm | High winds caused oscillations in the mast structure |
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August 27, 1967 | Guyed lattice steel mast | 161 | Aircraft collision | |
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June 24, 1968 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 609 | Airplane collision during thunderstorm | |
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November 17, 1968 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 524 | Collapse due to plane collision with guy wire | |
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January 17, 1969 | ? | Plane crash | ? | |
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March 19, 1969 | Guyed tubular steel mast | 385 | Ice | Replaced by 330 m free-standing concrete tower |
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July 12, 1970 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 250 | Lightning | The base insulator was destroyed |
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February 28, 1971 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 305 & 213 | Ice | Two towers collapsed |
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September 7, 1971 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 411 | Structural failure during construction | Seven technicians were killed while lifting the first of three large antenna sections into place at the top of the tower.[8] |
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November 15, 1972 | Lattice steel tower | 243 | Storm | |
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June 8, 1973 | Guyed Steel Tower | 457 | Removal of load-bearing diagonals during FM antenna installation | Multi-station tower supporting antennas of TV stations WDBO-TV, WFTV, and WMFE-TV, and radio stations WDBO-FM and WDIZ-FM – two workers on tower killed |
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October 4, 1973 | Guyed Steel Tower | 598 | Tower modifications | Tower being modified prior to installation of Iowa Public Television side-mounted antenna – five workers on tower site killed |
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February 1974 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 218 | Terrorism | A slightly higher tower, 225 m, has been built since. |
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1975 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 610 | Blizzard | |
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February 18, 1976 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 350 | Material fault | |
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December 2, 1976 | Concrete tower | 80 | Storm | Storm tore pinnacle down |
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September 7, 1977 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 305 | Aircraft collision | |
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October 8, 1977 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 521 | Undetermined | 1709 feet HAAT. Erected November 17, 1964. Had elevator, RCA Travelling Wave pylon antenna for Channel 12 (System M), land mobile antennas, all lost. RCA contractor for erection, stainless subcontractor. No definitive cause ever found for collapse. Speculation of "galloping guy lines" (mechanical standing waves in one of the guys), causing stress-to-failure in the guys due to rapidly alternating strain. |
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December 16, 1977[9] | Guyed steel tubular mast | 26 | Ice | |
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March 26, 1978 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 491 | 24 two-inch coupling bolts connecting the second and third sections of the tower snapped due to ice formation | In August 1969. This tower was one of the three tallest structures in the Northern Hemisphere and its transmitter radiated the most powerful UHF-TV signal in the world.[citation needed] TV channel 14 (470-476 MHz). Collapsed Easter Sunday. 39°45′31″N 90°31′8″W / 39.75861°N 90.51889°W |
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March 26, 1978 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 400 | Upper section of antenna broke loose and destroyed guy wires due to ice storm | WAND and WJJY used the same RCA UHF antennas, mfg in 1969. TV channel 17 (488-494 MHz) Collapsed Easter Sunday. |
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February 1978 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 457 | Ice | |
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May 21, 1978 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 352 | Aircraft collision | |
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1979 | Guyed mast of lattice steel | 305 | Ice | Mast was predamaged |
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December 27, 1979 | Guyed mast of lattice steel | 323 | Ice | Pinnacle with broadcasting antennas fell down, height afterwards 274 metres |
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October 8, 1980 | Guyed mast of lattice steel | 190 | Ice | Guy supports were improperly installed |
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Guyed mast of lattice steel | 88 | Melting of guy supports | The guy wires were made of polymer, which melted as a result of a high electric field strength storm | |
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July 31, 1981 | Lattice steel tower | 285 | Aircraft collision | Debris of the tower killed a couple in a house near the tower. |
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1981 | Lattice steel tower | ? | Aircraft collision | Hit by a military jet. Replaced with one nearly 2,000 feet (610 m) tall. |
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January 1982 | Guyed steel lattice mast | ? | Ice storm | |
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May 2, 1982[10] | Guyed steel lattice mast | 129[11] | High winds and corrosion | |
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December 7, 1982 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 569 | Guy support wire severed | Total collapse during installation of 6-ton FM antenna on new 1800 ft. tower. Five technicians killed: two on the hoist riding the FM antenna up and three on the tower. Determined insufficient sized bolts on the makeshift lifting lug extension failed. The falling debris severed one of the tower's guy wires which caused the tower to whip back and forth and collapse. |
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December 11, 1982 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 184 | Sabotage | Guy wires severed |
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1983 | Guyed mast | 412 | Ice | |
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October 13, 1983 | Guyed mast | 315 | Storm | |
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November 28, 1983 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 610 | Ice | |
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January 15, 1985 | Guyed steel tube mast | 298 | Ice | |
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February 14, 1986 | Self-supporting tower | 137 | High wind | KYA transmitter placed in service in 1937. Failure may have resulted from tower leg insulator replacement where all-thread rod was not long enough to fully engage securing nut. |
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November 25, 1987 | Lattice steel tower | 92 | Force 8 storm | Tallest ever mast aboard any ship. It was replaced by horizontal wire antenna between two shorter masts. |
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December 26, 1987 | Lattice steel guyed tower | 582 | Ice storm | Listed at 1909 feet |
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January 1988 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 143.5 | Material fault and high winds[12] | |
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June 2, 1988 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 610 | Maintenance | Crew was replacing cross support beams at the 200 meter level. The mast broke at that spot, the bottom 200 meters fell to the south, the top fell straight down. All three workers on the mast were killed. |
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January 10, 1989[13] | Guyed steel lattice mast | 55 | Ice storm | |
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October 17, 1989 | ? | 91 | Earthquake | Three towers damaged |
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December 1989 | Two guyed steel tube framework masts | 609 | Ice | Unusually heavy ice concentrated at top predominantly on one side of towers caused asymmetrical load. Dislodged essentially as one piece during rapid warming; sudden unloading caused dynamic failure. |
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September 25, 1990 | guyed steel triangular tower | 107 | Underground corrosion of guy wire steel and anchor shaft | Two tower service personnel were seriously injured |
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February 3, 1991 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 150 | Storm | |
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March 23, 1991 | Guyed steel triangular tower | 259 | Ice and high wind | Freezing rain, accompanied at time with thunder, coated the city of Duluth with as much as six inches of ice. The 850-foot WDIO-TV tower was toppled as winds gusted to 40 mph, buffeting the heavily ice-covered tower. The tower fell onto a nearby utility line which provided power to the remainder of Duluth's television and FM radio stations, and all but one AM radio station. Telephone and power lines snapped leaving Duluth and many northeastern Minnesota communities without utility services for 24 hours. The DNR reported that four million pine trees were damaged or destroyed. - NOAA NWS Duluth, MN |
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May 8, 1991 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 133.5 | High winds | |
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August 8, 1991 | Guyed steel tube framework mast | 648 | Maintenance | Replacement by facility in Solec Kujawski |
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September 13, 1991 | Lattice steel tower | 60 | High winds | |
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August 25, 1992 | Guyed steel tower | 549 | Hurricane Andrew | Rebuilt by LeBlanc Tower of Canada |
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1992 | Guyed mast (insulated) | 91 | Hurricane Andrew | Collapse of 2 masts |
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February 2, 1993 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 411 | Material fault | Fatigue failure of the eyebolt head in a compression cone insulator on structural guy caused swing-in damage, which resulted in structural collapse |
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February 25, 1993 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 191 | Snowstorm | Tower had construction faults |
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March 6, 1996 | ? | 242 | Tornado | |
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August 29, 1996 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 250 | Structural failure during dismantling | One worker was killed and four workers were injured. |
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September 2, 1996 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 160 | Maintenance | |
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October 12, 1996 | Guyed steel tower | 468 | Maintenance for DTV install | Three died when tower collapsed after a gin pole ran off its track and snapped a guy wire |
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1997 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 350 | Ice | Two masts collapsed |
250 | |||||
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April 6, 1997 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 628 | Ice | |
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March 20, 1997 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 606 | Maintenance | One killed, two injured when workers failed to install temporary braces |
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October 23, 1997 | Guyed steel lattice | 609 | Maintenance | Three killed - temporary braces failed during HDTV antenna upgrade |
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February 20, 1998 | Steel lattice | 73 | Vandalism, possible sabotage | 76 bolts were removed without authorization from the base of the tower. The perpetrator has not been identified to this date.[14][15] |
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June 13, 1998 | Guyed mast | 293 | Tornado | |
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April 30, 1999 | Concrete tower (with observation deck) | 203 | Air raid (NATO bombardment during the Kosovo war) | |
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August 30, 1999 | Square lattice roof top tower | 98 (40 + 58 (building + tower))[16] | Storm[16] | The tower on the roof collapsed to street. Two persons were killed.[17] |
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April 20, 2000 | Thunderstorm winds | Early morning thunderstorm wind event with estimated damage of $500,000[18] | ||
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April 25, 2000 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 198 | Helicopter crash | Three died when a medical helicopter hit a guy wire in clear weather and crashed |
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July 9, 2000 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 61 | Sabotage | Two towers collapsed |
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August 23, 2000 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 123 | Storm | |
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January 1, 2001 | Guyed steel lattice tower | 103[19] | Structural failure during dismantling | Two workers were killed, and one worker was seriously injured.[20] |
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April 27, 2001 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 331.5 (307.1 + 24.4 (structure + antenna)) | Controlled implosion after aircraft crash caused serious damage five days earlier | Rebuilt in 2003, the new tower has almost the same height, i.e. 326.8 m (307.1 m for the structure, but the antenna is shorter (19.7 m)). |
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June 6, 2001 | Guyed steel lattice mast carrying a T-antenna | 205 | Deteriorated support guys | |
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September 11, 2001 | Truses and Axis | 526.8 (417 + 109.8 (roof + antenna)) | Terrorist attack | Tower was destroyed as a result of the September 11 attacks in which a commercial airliner flew into the side of the building causing it and the broadcast tower to collapse under its own weight. |
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November 5, 2001 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 258 | Helicopter collision | |
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2001 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 151.5 | High winds and corrosion | |
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March 14, 2002 | Guyed steel tower | 533.1 | Airplane crash | Pilot killed and the tower was destroyed |
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April 3, 2002 | Free-standing steel lattice tower | 100[21] | Storm | |
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September 24, 2002 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 599 | Maintenance | Two workers killed, three injured on ground |
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February 19, 2003 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 473 | Ice | |
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February 19, 2003 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 200 | Ice | |
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May 4, 2003 | Free-standing steel lattice tower | 176 | Tornado | |
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May 10, 2003 | Free-standing steel lattice tower | ? | Tornado | Collapse of three towers, following collapse of larger single tower at same site by straight-line winds on 20 April 2000 |
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July 2003 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 415 | Reconstruction work | |
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July 5, 2003 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 222 | Storm (derecho) | |
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September 4, 2003 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 305 | unknown | Three workers killed |
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September 8, 2003 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 45 | ||
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September 16, 2004 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 131 | Hurricane Ivan | Replacement tower constructed shortly thereafter. Also knocked Clarke County, AL, Sheriff's Office off the air (KWO611) |
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September 16, 2004 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 518 | Storm | Hurricane Ivan |
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October 30, 2004 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 163 | Fire (suspected vandalism) | Temporary replacement mast constructed shortly thereafter. New permanent mast entered full service in February 2006. |
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December 19, 2004 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 195 | Aircraft collision | |
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February 27, 2005 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 538 | Replacement tower completed September 15, 2005. | |
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November 25, 2005 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 325 | Aircraft collision | All three aircraft occupants killed |
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February 3, 2006 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 329 | Undetermined | 1078 feet HAAT. Erected in 1981. No definitive cause ever found for collapse. Speculation was that the collapse was directly or indirectly related to the recent installation of their digital television antenna. The collapse destroyed the tower, KLTV's analog and digital antennas, KLTV's digital transmitter, and FM station KVNE's antenna. The analog transmitter was undamaged, and within a few days was moved to KLTV's backup tower in east Tyler. The collapse occurred the day after Raycom Media officially took ownership of the station. |
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August 23, 2006 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 174 | Maintenance | One person was killed |
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March 1, 2007 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 329 | EF3 tornado | Americus, Georgia, was struck by the tornado a few minutes later |
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March 2, 2007 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 230 | Guy wire anchor failure | Under construction. Also destroyed transmitter building. Was planned for a height of 1,036 ft (315.77 m).[22] |
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April 18, 2007 | Guyed steel tower | 136 | Structural failure | 400-foot transmitter tower located on Averil Peak, NY completely collapsed as a result of accumulation of ice and snow from the April 2007 Nor'easter. Partially damaged the transmitter building at the base. New tower erected and back in service Oct, 9 2007. |
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May 29, 2007 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 244 | Restoration work | |
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December 16, 2007 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 244 | Ice | Also damaged transmitter building and doppler radar.[23] |
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December 16, 2007 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 510 | Ice | 300 ft. section lost from top of tower[24] |
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January 11, 2008 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 609 | Maintenance | Restringing guy wires[25] |
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2008 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 152 | High winds | |
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March 28, 2009 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 326 | Ice | |
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June 30, 2009 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 102 | Storm | Wind gust reportedly caused the mast to collapse during a severe storm |
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July 23, 2009 | Free-standing steel lattice tower | 186.8 | Storm[26] | |
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September 4, 2009 | Guyed steel lattice mast | ? | Terrorism | Two masts |
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January 30, 2010 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 86 | Sabotage | Guyed wires cut |
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April 14, 2010 | Guyed steel lattice mast (MW) Guyed steel tubular mast (SW) |
76 (MW) & 25 (SW) | 2010 Yushu earthquake | |
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April 26, 2010 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 72 | High winds | |
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March 22, 2011 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 609 | Ice, high winds | Weather-related |
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July 15, 2011 | Guyed steel tube mast on concrete tower | 303 | Fire | Tubular steel superstructure collapsed, new steel lattice superstructure constructed (2012) on top of existing concrete base tower |
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July 26, 2011 | Free-standing steel lattice tower | 70 | Storm | |
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October 1, 2011 | Guyed | 210 | Fire | Fire started in a leftover deposit close to one of the guy wire anchors.[29][30][31] |
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March 23, 2012 | Free-standing steel lattice tower | 136[32] | High winds[33] | |
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August 8, 2012 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 280 | Ragged guy wire | Pinnacle and upper sections fell down |
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August 28, 2012 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 110 | Typhoon Bolaven (2012) | [34] |
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November 2, 2012 | Lattice tower | 30 | Truck collision[35] | |
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September 20, 2013 | Guyed | 152 | Unknown | |
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July 1, 2014 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 222 | Artillery shelling | During the final days of the siege of Sloviansk Ukrainian Government forces positioned on the Mount Karachun were shelled by the Russian proxies. As a result, the guy wires failed and tower collapsed.[36] The new tower 50 m shorter was opened on December 5, 2016, in place of the destroyed one.[37] |
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September 24, 2014 | Guyed | 200 | Corrosion | Mast collapsed during replacement of corroded leg at 160 m. Four riggers killed.[38] |
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January 2, 2015 | Guyed | 60 | Storm | |
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May 15, 2016 | Guyed mast of lattice steel | 332 | Sabotage | Roughly half of the mast fell after guy wires had been sabotaged. |
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September 27, 2016 | Free-standing steel lattice tower | 125 | Typhoon Megi[39] | |
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January 17, 2017 | Free-standing steel lattice tower | 135 | Structural failure during dismantling | Two workers were killed.[40] |
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August 9, 2017 | ? | ? | High winds[41] | |
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April 19, 2018 | Guyed | 597 | Maintenance | Six workers were performing routine maintenance at 105 ft on the tower when it collapsed, one worker was killed. |
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September 30, 2018 | Guyed steel lattice mast[42] | 30[43] | Typhoon Trami | Replaced by a 25m steel monopole tower. |
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October 18, 2019 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 76 | Excavator collision with guy wire[44] | |
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January 18, 2020 | Guyed | 500.4 | Ice | Collapsed during an ice storm.[45] |
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October 17, 2022 | Free-standing steel lattice tower | 75 | Typhoon Nesat[46] | |
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October 18, 2022 | Free-standing steel lattice tower | 125 | Typhoon Nesat[46] | |
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December 14, 2022 | Guyed steel lattice mast | 548.6 & 243.8 | Ice | 2 towers collapsed during an ice storm.[47] |
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