On Thursday evening emergency services were called to a serious crane incident at the Danish National Test Centre for large wind turbines on the Østerild Dune Plantation to the east of Thisted in North Jutland, Denmark - due east of Aalborg.
The scene on Thursday night
A large lattice crawler crane from the BMS fleet had overturned, thankfully the crane operator, 23, was not seriously injured in the incident, although he was taken to hospital after reporting that he had got some diesel in his eyes. There were a few others still working on the site at the time but were not caught up in the incident.
A clean up to collect the spilled diesel and hydraulic oil was also instigated. We have heard that the crane, a big Liebherr, had been completing a lift of a large wind turbine blade when it went over, but have not been able to confirm that beyond all doubt. The ground under that crane looks fine, we are told, so it looks as though the load may have gone beyond its safe radius and pulled the crane over? However we cannot be at all sure of that. We have reached out to BMS for a comment and update.
One of the photos we have received that were taken over the weekend
According to the West Jutland Police, an investigation was due to get underway on Friday.
Over the weekend end we have received a few more photos but we need to the check them before using them. We will update this item when we learn more.
Bohdan_Astro
It looks like a Liebherr LR 11350 crane has fallen. I wonder what condition the operator's cabin is in? It's not visible in the photos, but it looks like it should have been crushed by the crane's track, or by hitting the ground, or by the counterweights... It's quite difficult for a crane operator to evacuate from this model of crane if it falls quickly... This crane operator is a really lucky guy!
Here's a video of two such cranes in action, apparently at that site: https://youtu.be/yzpXE2TzIcw?si=Jz1XqxynzmVnP6os Probably one of them fell...
Red
No disrespect to the youth of the world, but how does a youngster wind up running such a large crane at nite on such a technical if not critical lift.
I would submit there should have been a journeyman operator with many years of experience at the controls, or at least alongside the young operator.
Bohdan_Astro
It looks like a Liebherr LR 11350 crane has fallen. I wonder what condition the operator's cabin is in? It's not visible in the photos, but it looks like it should have been crushed by the crane's track, or by hitting the ground, or by the counterweights... It's quite difficult for a crane operator to evacuate from this model of crane if it falls quickly... This crane operator is a really lucky guy!
Here's a video of two such cranes in action, apparently at that site: https://youtu.be/yzpXE2TzIcw?si=Jz1XqxynzmVnP6os Probably one of them fell...
Red
No disrespect to the youth of the world, but how does a youngster wind up running such a large crane at nite on such a technical if not critical lift.
I would submit there should have been a journeyman operator with many years of experience at the controls, or at least alongside the young operator.