1 00:00:15,370 --> 00:00:32,490 Speaker 1: Pushkin Friday Night at the Hyatt Regency, one of Kansas 2 00:00:32,490 --> 00:00:35,610 Speaker 1: City's most popular dates since the hotel opened just a 3 00:00:35,690 --> 00:00:39,530 Speaker 1: year earlier. There are cues at the lobby bar. The 4 00:00:39,610 --> 00:00:43,050 Speaker 1: place is buzzing. It's the summer of nineteen eighty one, 5 00:00:43,410 --> 00:00:46,570 Speaker 1: but the orchestra is belting out the big band sounds 6 00:00:46,570 --> 00:00:51,090 Speaker 1: of the forties and fifties. Dance contestants with numbers pinned 7 00:00:51,090 --> 00:00:53,730 Speaker 1: to their backs are doing the Mambo and the East 8 00:00:53,770 --> 00:00:58,850 Speaker 1: Coast Swing. But while the music is nostalgic, the hotel 9 00:00:58,930 --> 00:01:03,890 Speaker 1: lobby is distinctly space age. It's big and airy, with 10 00:01:03,970 --> 00:01:07,410 Speaker 1: a glass wall letting in the light and three walkways 11 00:01:08,130 --> 00:01:13,010 Speaker 1: skywalks crossing the space on the second, third, and fourth floors. 12 00:01:13,610 --> 00:01:17,370 Speaker 1: They're suspended from the ceiling so that the lobby itself 13 00:01:17,490 --> 00:01:21,210 Speaker 1: is unobstructed by columns, all the more room for dancing. 14 00:01:22,690 --> 00:01:26,290 Speaker 1: Cindy Paulson briefly looks down from the terrace restaurant to 15 00:01:26,290 --> 00:01:28,410 Speaker 1: see if she can see her father out on the 16 00:01:28,490 --> 00:01:32,650 Speaker 1: dance floor. The restaurant, on a large mezzanine overlooking the lobby, 17 00:01:32,850 --> 00:01:37,090 Speaker 1: provides the perfect view, but the lobby floor is packed 18 00:01:37,250 --> 00:01:40,170 Speaker 1: and she can't pick him out of the crowd. After 19 00:01:40,210 --> 00:01:43,970 Speaker 1: a moment, she goes back to work. Cindy's a college student. 20 00:01:44,650 --> 00:01:47,770 Speaker 1: Her family live in town. Being a hostess at the 21 00:01:47,850 --> 00:01:52,850 Speaker 1: Hyatt is her summer job. It's five past seven in 22 00:01:52,890 --> 00:01:58,010 Speaker 1: the evening. Cindy will always remember that because she glances 23 00:01:58,050 --> 00:02:01,730 Speaker 1: across the lobby, out through the floor to ceiling glass wall, 24 00:02:02,130 --> 00:02:04,690 Speaker 1: and sees the time on the clock on the bank 25 00:02:04,850 --> 00:02:10,850 Speaker 1: just across the street. Then, as a sharp crack, clearly 26 00:02:10,890 --> 00:02:14,450 Speaker 1: audible even above the music and the loud buzz of conversation, 27 00:02:15,250 --> 00:02:19,090 Speaker 1: Cindy's eyes refocus from the distant clock to the sky 28 00:02:19,250 --> 00:02:23,730 Speaker 1: walks in front of her, but she can't believe what 29 00:02:23,930 --> 00:02:33,330 Speaker 1: she's seeing. I'm Tim Harford, and you're listening to cautionary tales. 30 00:02:56,610 --> 00:03:01,530 Speaker 1: Doctor Joseph Wackerlely got the call almost immediately from emergency dispatchers, 31 00:03:02,410 --> 00:03:05,930 Speaker 1: we need a highest. He grabbed a stethoscope and scrubs 32 00:03:05,970 --> 00:03:10,170 Speaker 1: and ran to his car. Wackily, just thirty five years old, 33 00:03:10,330 --> 00:03:13,930 Speaker 1: had already served as the director of Kansas City's emergency 34 00:03:13,970 --> 00:03:19,290 Speaker 1: medical system. He rushed to the scene. When Wakiley arrived 35 00:03:19,330 --> 00:03:21,890 Speaker 1: at the Hyat, it was lit by the flashing lights 36 00:03:21,890 --> 00:03:25,770 Speaker 1: of ambulances amid the crowd. There were dozens of injured people. 37 00:03:26,450 --> 00:03:30,090 Speaker 1: Some were bleeding, others had broken bones. Some were lying 38 00:03:30,130 --> 00:03:35,370 Speaker 1: on stretchers. Wackiley sprang into action, checking who needed assistance 39 00:03:35,450 --> 00:03:40,690 Speaker 1: most urgently. Then a paramedic grabbed him. You're in the 40 00:03:40,730 --> 00:03:45,170 Speaker 1: wrong place, he said. The real casualties are inside the hotel. 41 00:03:45,930 --> 00:03:50,410 Speaker 1: You need to get inside. The lobby was no longer 42 00:03:50,570 --> 00:03:54,730 Speaker 1: airy and bathed in evening sunlight. It was coated in 43 00:03:54,850 --> 00:04:01,490 Speaker 1: concrete dust. The skywalks no longer levitated across the atrium. 44 00:04:01,650 --> 00:04:05,610 Speaker 1: Two of them had fallen, crunching onto the busy dance floor. 45 00:04:06,570 --> 00:04:10,930 Speaker 1: Voices were calling out for help. Electric cables were swinging 46 00:04:10,970 --> 00:04:15,010 Speaker 1: loose arcs of electricity, sending flashes of light across the 47 00:04:15,090 --> 00:04:20,610 Speaker 1: dim space. Somewhere higher barth a pipe had fractured and 48 00:04:20,850 --> 00:04:25,170 Speaker 1: water was gushing onto the lobby floor. It was six 49 00:04:25,250 --> 00:04:29,690 Speaker 1: inches deep already and threatened to submerge those who were trapped. 50 00:04:30,290 --> 00:04:34,810 Speaker 1: If anyone had survived the impact, that is, Wackerley could 51 00:04:34,850 --> 00:04:39,570 Speaker 1: see arms and legs sticking out of the rubble. Doctor 52 00:04:39,610 --> 00:04:43,250 Speaker 1: Wackerley took charge of the medical operation. It was bolstered 53 00:04:43,250 --> 00:04:47,650 Speaker 1: by a huge voluntary effort with taxes, buses and private cars, 54 00:04:47,650 --> 00:04:51,970 Speaker 1: helping the ambulances to get injured people to hospitals. Locals 55 00:04:51,970 --> 00:04:55,450 Speaker 1: were doing whatever they could to tend to the walking, wounded, free, 56 00:04:55,450 --> 00:05:01,130 Speaker 1: the trapped, and comfort families. Among them was Cindy Paulson, 57 00:05:01,330 --> 00:05:06,010 Speaker 1: the restaurant hostess. She'd helped evacuate the diners at the restaurant, 58 00:05:06,050 --> 00:05:09,690 Speaker 1: but then she'd return to the lobby. Somewhere in the 59 00:05:09,730 --> 00:05:14,770 Speaker 1: middle of that mess was her father. She moved through 60 00:05:14,770 --> 00:05:18,250 Speaker 1: the lobby, doing what she could. She comforted one couple 61 00:05:18,530 --> 00:05:22,690 Speaker 1: hinned under the wreckage. After firefighters were able to free them, 62 00:05:22,890 --> 00:05:30,490 Speaker 1: Cindy kept looking for her father. Two hundred and fifty 63 00:05:30,530 --> 00:05:34,450 Speaker 1: miles away in Saint Louis, Jack Gillam and his wife 64 00:05:35,050 --> 00:05:40,210 Speaker 1: arrived home to find the telephone ringing. The call was 65 00:05:40,290 --> 00:05:43,930 Speaker 1: from one of the architects at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. 66 00:05:44,850 --> 00:05:49,810 Speaker 1: There's been a collapse at the Hyatt. Jack Gillham was stunned. 67 00:05:50,970 --> 00:05:54,410 Speaker 1: He was the structural engineer of record for the Hyatt 68 00:05:54,450 --> 00:05:58,490 Speaker 1: Regency Hotel's construction. That meant he was the one who 69 00:05:58,530 --> 00:06:01,770 Speaker 1: had signed off on all the designs, certifying that they 70 00:06:01,770 --> 00:06:04,930 Speaker 1: were safe, and now Gillam was being told that those 71 00:06:05,050 --> 00:06:09,890 Speaker 1: elegant walkways across the hotel lobby had fallen out of 72 00:06:09,930 --> 00:06:14,850 Speaker 1: the sky and smashed into the crowd of people below. Jack. 73 00:06:15,210 --> 00:06:17,370 Speaker 1: The rescue teams are trying to get equipment that can 74 00:06:17,490 --> 00:06:20,450 Speaker 1: move the fallen sections of walkway. They need to know 75 00:06:20,530 --> 00:06:25,050 Speaker 1: how heavy the sections are reeling. Gillam could hardly think. 76 00:06:25,890 --> 00:06:29,770 Speaker 1: He stammered out an approximate answer. Each of those airy 77 00:06:29,810 --> 00:06:35,850 Speaker 1: looking skywalks weighed over thirty tons. A single walkway section 78 00:06:36,250 --> 00:06:40,050 Speaker 1: weighed about eight tons. They were going to need cranes. 79 00:06:41,490 --> 00:06:45,250 Speaker 1: Gillam managed to charter a plane and fly over, arriving 80 00:06:45,290 --> 00:06:49,330 Speaker 1: a few hours into the rescue effort. Whatever he expected 81 00:06:49,370 --> 00:06:53,850 Speaker 1: to see, the disaster was worse. But his job now 82 00:06:53,930 --> 00:06:56,970 Speaker 1: was to try to figure out how the structure had failed. 83 00:06:57,770 --> 00:07:01,130 Speaker 1: This was a brand new building. It looked bold, but 84 00:07:01,370 --> 00:07:08,210 Speaker 1: the engineering was simple enough. Somehow the structure had failed catastrophically. 85 00:07:09,570 --> 00:07:17,730 Speaker 1: Somehow they had missed something. But what. Three skywalks had 86 00:07:17,770 --> 00:07:21,810 Speaker 1: spanned the atrium of the Hired Regency, flat decks of 87 00:07:21,890 --> 00:07:26,850 Speaker 1: steel and concrete with glass balustrades hanging on steel rods 88 00:07:26,890 --> 00:07:31,290 Speaker 1: from the roof. The third floor skywalk hung by itself 89 00:07:31,530 --> 00:07:35,610 Speaker 1: and was undamaged, but the second floor skywalk had hung 90 00:07:35,690 --> 00:07:39,170 Speaker 1: directly beneath the one on the fourth floor. When Cindy 91 00:07:39,210 --> 00:07:42,530 Speaker 1: Paulson had gazed absently over the lobby at a clock 92 00:07:42,530 --> 00:07:45,970 Speaker 1: across the street, her attention had been caught by the 93 00:07:46,050 --> 00:07:51,450 Speaker 1: sound of bird skywalks lurching downwards a few inches. There 94 00:07:51,450 --> 00:07:54,330 Speaker 1: were a few people on the upper skywalk and more 95 00:07:54,410 --> 00:07:57,610 Speaker 1: on the lower one, fifty sixty maybe, but there wasn't 96 00:07:57,610 --> 00:08:02,450 Speaker 1: time for them to react. A moment later, both skywalks 97 00:08:02,490 --> 00:08:06,450 Speaker 1: simultaneously tore free of one of the supporting ceiling rods. 98 00:08:07,250 --> 00:08:11,410 Speaker 1: The extra load was suddenly transferred to nearby rods, ripping 99 00:08:11,450 --> 00:08:15,530 Speaker 1: the skywalks free of those connections too, And the next 100 00:08:16,210 --> 00:08:21,210 Speaker 1: and the next, the skywalks simply unzipped themselves from the 101 00:08:21,250 --> 00:08:28,970 Speaker 1: ceiling rods, and the skywalks no longer more than sixty 102 00:08:29,050 --> 00:08:32,930 Speaker 1: tons of steel and concrete fell onto the dancers below, 103 00:08:33,450 --> 00:08:38,970 Speaker 1: spraying bystanders with deadly glass shrapnels. The entire chain reaction 104 00:08:39,730 --> 00:08:44,690 Speaker 1: took seconds. Doctor Joseph Wakerley and the other rescuers were 105 00:08:44,690 --> 00:08:48,450 Speaker 1: now trying to deal with the aftermath. One man was 106 00:08:48,610 --> 00:08:52,370 Speaker 1: half buried, his legs crushed by a piece of skywalk. 107 00:08:53,250 --> 00:08:56,770 Speaker 1: Wackerley told him he wouldn't survive unless they could amputate. 108 00:08:57,490 --> 00:09:02,650 Speaker 1: The man said no. Others didn't get the choice. Medics 109 00:09:02,690 --> 00:09:05,370 Speaker 1: were forced to tell people, we can't get you out 110 00:09:05,410 --> 00:09:08,410 Speaker 1: in time. You'll die before they get the cranes in here. 111 00:09:09,090 --> 00:09:10,850 Speaker 1: All we can do is give you something to ease 112 00:09:10,890 --> 00:09:15,690 Speaker 1: the pain. Then they moved on to the next patient. 113 00:09:16,890 --> 00:09:20,490 Speaker 1: Family members were on the scene almost immediately, begging the 114 00:09:20,570 --> 00:09:24,530 Speaker 1: medics and the fire crews to help. Wakilee was trying 115 00:09:24,570 --> 00:09:29,250 Speaker 1: to decide who most urgently needed care, with the spouses 116 00:09:29,290 --> 00:09:35,570 Speaker 1: and parents and children of the victims right there crying, pleading, screaming. 117 00:09:35,570 --> 00:09:38,810 Speaker 1: As he did it, he went back to the man 118 00:09:38,930 --> 00:09:42,690 Speaker 1: who'd turned down the amputation. I've changed my mind, Doc, 119 00:09:42,930 --> 00:09:45,370 Speaker 1: he said, you can take my legs off. I just 120 00:09:45,450 --> 00:09:49,570 Speaker 1: want to live. Wackily beckoned over a surgeon with a 121 00:09:49,650 --> 00:09:54,930 Speaker 1: chainsaw to perform the amputation. They got him out, but 122 00:09:55,370 --> 00:10:00,850 Speaker 1: in vain. He didn't survive. The night, Cindy Paulson was 123 00:10:00,970 --> 00:10:04,450 Speaker 1: outside looking for her father, hoping he'd been able to 124 00:10:04,490 --> 00:10:09,970 Speaker 1: walk away, and deep deep under the rubble was a 125 00:10:10,010 --> 00:10:14,490 Speaker 1: man called Mark Williams. Williams was an old school friend 126 00:10:14,530 --> 00:10:19,050 Speaker 1: of Joseph Wackerley. While Wackerley hurried around directing the medical response. 127 00:10:19,490 --> 00:10:23,210 Speaker 1: Williams was doing his best to contribute. He was trapped 128 00:10:23,330 --> 00:10:26,610 Speaker 1: in an eighteen inch pocket of air underneath a section 129 00:10:26,690 --> 00:10:30,530 Speaker 1: of fallen skywalk. His legs had been slightly askew when 130 00:10:30,570 --> 00:10:34,770 Speaker 1: the skywalks fell and were wrenched into the splits and beyond. 131 00:10:35,570 --> 00:10:39,490 Speaker 1: Both his legs were dislocated. His left foot was up 132 00:10:39,530 --> 00:10:44,170 Speaker 1: beside his right ear, but other trapped people could hear 133 00:10:44,290 --> 00:10:48,130 Speaker 1: his voice, calmly talking to them, trying to reassure everyone 134 00:10:48,410 --> 00:10:51,250 Speaker 1: that help was on the way, that they'd get through this. 135 00:10:52,490 --> 00:10:55,930 Speaker 1: But with his face pressed against the floor and water 136 00:10:56,090 --> 00:10:59,890 Speaker 1: seeping through the rubble all around him, Williams realized that 137 00:11:00,050 --> 00:11:04,850 Speaker 1: after surviving over sixty tons falling on him, he was 138 00:11:04,930 --> 00:11:25,290 Speaker 1: now all too likely to drown. While the medics and 139 00:11:25,370 --> 00:11:29,610 Speaker 1: the firefighters worked through the night, the structural engineer Jack 140 00:11:29,690 --> 00:11:33,130 Speaker 1: Gillem wasn't getting any sleep either. He was the man 141 00:11:33,170 --> 00:11:37,250 Speaker 1: who'd officially declared the skywalks was safe to build. What 142 00:11:37,410 --> 00:11:41,370 Speaker 1: had gone wrong was a very simple and surprising mistake. 143 00:11:41,930 --> 00:11:46,410 Speaker 1: Gillem spent some time doing some calculations to confirm his suspicions. 144 00:11:47,010 --> 00:11:50,250 Speaker 1: Then he went to bed, staring at the ceiling of 145 00:11:50,290 --> 00:11:54,690 Speaker 1: his hotel room until the morning. Meanwhile, the rest of 146 00:11:54,730 --> 00:11:59,130 Speaker 1: the world was left to speculate. One popular theory was 147 00:11:59,170 --> 00:12:03,090 Speaker 1: that the skywalks were overcrowded with people dancing, and that 148 00:12:03,170 --> 00:12:07,330 Speaker 1: their rhythmic movements had set up dangerous resonances which destroyed 149 00:12:07,370 --> 00:12:11,410 Speaker 1: the structure. But the numbers didn't add up. The people 150 00:12:11,450 --> 00:12:14,130 Speaker 1: on the skywalks would have had to have been frenetically 151 00:12:14,170 --> 00:12:18,210 Speaker 1: go go dancing, not gently nodding along to big band swing, 152 00:12:19,090 --> 00:12:22,050 Speaker 1: and the weight of the people was small compared with 153 00:12:22,050 --> 00:12:25,850 Speaker 1: the weight of the skywalks themselves. There were sixty three 154 00:12:25,890 --> 00:12:30,770 Speaker 1: people on walkways that, by coincidence, weighed sixty three tons. 155 00:12:31,970 --> 00:12:35,290 Speaker 1: Kansas City building codes demanded that the skywalks could have 156 00:12:35,330 --> 00:12:39,490 Speaker 1: carried nearly ten times as many people, more like five 157 00:12:39,570 --> 00:12:43,970 Speaker 1: hundred people than sixty three. Then talk turned to the 158 00:12:44,090 --> 00:12:47,930 Speaker 1: quality of construction. Had someone tried to save money by 159 00:12:48,010 --> 00:12:54,810 Speaker 1: using cheap materials A reasonable guess, but no. Within days, 160 00:12:55,730 --> 00:13:00,090 Speaker 1: the world had figured out the skywalk's fatal floor, thanks 161 00:13:00,090 --> 00:13:04,290 Speaker 1: to a young engineer, a telephoto lens, and the Kansas 162 00:13:04,370 --> 00:13:08,770 Speaker 1: City Star. I've relied on reporting from the Kansas City 163 00:13:08,810 --> 00:13:12,370 Speaker 1: Star for the eyewitness accounts of the disaster. But the 164 00:13:12,370 --> 00:13:15,850 Speaker 1: newspaper also won a pull it surprise for its investigation 165 00:13:16,090 --> 00:13:21,610 Speaker 1: into exactly why the skywalks collapsed. After loud protests about 166 00:13:21,610 --> 00:13:24,410 Speaker 1: a cover up, the press were allowed to visit the 167 00:13:24,490 --> 00:13:29,810 Speaker 1: Hyatt's shattered atrium. The Star sent its best reporters and 168 00:13:29,890 --> 00:13:33,930 Speaker 1: at the last minute persuaded a young structural engineer named 169 00:13:34,050 --> 00:13:38,610 Speaker 1: Wayne Lishka to join them. The visit was a shock. 170 00:13:39,410 --> 00:13:42,730 Speaker 1: Wayne Lishka and his wife had spent evenings dancing in 171 00:13:42,730 --> 00:13:48,730 Speaker 1: the hotel lobby. The disaster seemed unnervingly close, but it 172 00:13:48,770 --> 00:13:52,770 Speaker 1: was also frustrating. Journalists were only allowed the view that 173 00:13:52,810 --> 00:13:56,370 Speaker 1: the hostess, Cindy Paulson, had had looking down at the 174 00:13:56,370 --> 00:14:00,250 Speaker 1: lobby floor from the elevated restaurant. It wasn't close enough 175 00:14:00,290 --> 00:14:04,610 Speaker 1: to see much, unless, of course, Lishka asked the Star's 176 00:14:04,650 --> 00:14:09,410 Speaker 1: photographer to use a long zoom lens. Even from a distance, 177 00:14:09,690 --> 00:14:12,330 Speaker 1: Lishka could point out the details he wanted to see 178 00:14:12,450 --> 00:14:16,930 Speaker 1: up close. Take a shot of that, he said, and 179 00:14:17,090 --> 00:14:23,450 Speaker 1: that and that. When the photographs were developed, they showed 180 00:14:23,490 --> 00:14:27,210 Speaker 1: the end of the vertical rods uselessly hanging from the 181 00:14:27,250 --> 00:14:31,650 Speaker 1: ceiling down to the fourth floor. Lishka could see clearly 182 00:14:31,970 --> 00:14:36,170 Speaker 1: that the rods were basically undamaged. They hadn't thinned or stretched, 183 00:14:37,170 --> 00:14:43,130 Speaker 1: the rods hadn't failed, the skywalks had fallen off them. 184 00:14:43,250 --> 00:14:46,890 Speaker 1: Examining a few more photographs, Lishka and the Kansas City 185 00:14:46,930 --> 00:14:50,370 Speaker 1: Star had their answer, and on the front page of 186 00:14:50,410 --> 00:14:55,290 Speaker 1: the newspaper they published technical drawings highlighting a tiny detail 187 00:14:55,370 --> 00:14:59,290 Speaker 1: of the design, a tiny detail that had been overlooked 188 00:14:59,610 --> 00:15:05,410 Speaker 1: with the most appalling consequences. The detail concerned the connection 189 00:15:05,530 --> 00:15:09,490 Speaker 1: between the long vertical rods and the horizontal beam that 190 00:15:09,570 --> 00:15:14,650 Speaker 1: supported the walkways. These steel beams were hollow, big square 191 00:15:14,770 --> 00:15:19,810 Speaker 1: steel pipes that vertical rods pierced each horizontal beam, and 192 00:15:19,890 --> 00:15:23,730 Speaker 1: the beam was supported by a steel nut threaded onto 193 00:15:23,730 --> 00:15:27,530 Speaker 1: each rod. The beam couldn't slide down the rod because 194 00:15:27,690 --> 00:15:30,970 Speaker 1: the nut was in the way. That might sound flimsy, 195 00:15:31,050 --> 00:15:34,370 Speaker 1: but in fact a well designed steel nut could support 196 00:15:34,450 --> 00:15:40,530 Speaker 1: a huge weight. Now Here comes the fatal detail. The 197 00:15:40,610 --> 00:15:44,890 Speaker 1: original drawings for the skywalks showed both of them suspended 198 00:15:44,970 --> 00:15:49,290 Speaker 1: from the same long rods. The fourth floor skywalk was 199 00:15:49,330 --> 00:15:52,530 Speaker 1: supported by nuts halfway up each rod, and the second 200 00:15:52,530 --> 00:15:55,570 Speaker 1: floor skywalk was fixed by nuts at the bottom of 201 00:15:55,610 --> 00:16:02,090 Speaker 1: the same rods. But that is not what was built. Instead, 202 00:16:02,090 --> 00:16:05,850 Speaker 1: of hanging from the same long steel rods, the upper 203 00:16:05,850 --> 00:16:10,450 Speaker 1: skywalk hung from shorter rods, and the lower skywalk hung 204 00:16:10,530 --> 00:16:14,490 Speaker 1: from rods which were attached to the upper one. Describing it, 205 00:16:14,570 --> 00:16:17,730 Speaker 1: that change seems trivial, and if I were to show 206 00:16:17,730 --> 00:16:20,650 Speaker 1: you a technical drawing, the chances are you'd still say 207 00:16:20,730 --> 00:16:24,170 Speaker 1: that the change was trivial. It seems hard to see 208 00:16:24,170 --> 00:16:32,370 Speaker 1: why the change makes a difference. So picture this. Imagine 209 00:16:32,410 --> 00:16:34,890 Speaker 1: that you and a friend are planning to swing on 210 00:16:34,930 --> 00:16:38,610 Speaker 1: a rope hanging from a high tree branch. You'll hold 211 00:16:38,650 --> 00:16:40,410 Speaker 1: on to a knot in the middle of the rope, 212 00:16:40,610 --> 00:16:43,650 Speaker 1: and your friend will hold onto a knot near the bottom. 213 00:16:44,210 --> 00:16:46,690 Speaker 1: But then you realize you don't have a long enough 214 00:16:46,730 --> 00:16:51,050 Speaker 1: piece of rope. You've only got two shorter lengths. No problem, 215 00:16:51,170 --> 00:16:54,530 Speaker 1: says your friend. She ties one length of rope knotted 216 00:16:54,570 --> 00:16:57,570 Speaker 1: at the bottom around the tree branch. You swing from 217 00:16:57,610 --> 00:17:01,410 Speaker 1: that rope, she says. Then she ties the other length 218 00:17:01,890 --> 00:17:06,650 Speaker 1: firmly around your waist. I'll swing from this one. That 219 00:17:07,010 --> 00:17:10,210 Speaker 1: isn't going to work, is it. Your grip was strong 220 00:17:10,330 --> 00:17:13,210 Speaker 1: enough to support your own weight, but it's not strong 221 00:17:13,290 --> 00:17:16,090 Speaker 1: enough to support both of you. It won't be long 222 00:17:16,210 --> 00:17:20,650 Speaker 1: before your clasped hands lose their grip slipping around the knot, 223 00:17:21,210 --> 00:17:24,050 Speaker 1: and because your friend is hanging from a rope attached 224 00:17:24,090 --> 00:17:29,850 Speaker 1: to you, when you fall Shill fall. Two. The apparently 225 00:17:29,890 --> 00:17:34,730 Speaker 1: trivial design change to the skywalks had the same fatal effect. 226 00:17:35,610 --> 00:17:39,010 Speaker 1: Instead of two walkways hanging from the same set of rods, 227 00:17:39,490 --> 00:17:43,410 Speaker 1: now the upper walkway was supporting its own weight and 228 00:17:43,610 --> 00:17:47,770 Speaker 1: the weight of the lower skywalk two. For a year, 229 00:17:48,290 --> 00:17:53,130 Speaker 1: the steels strained under double the intended weight, absolutely at 230 00:17:53,130 --> 00:17:57,930 Speaker 1: the limit. What makes this an engineering tragedy rather than 231 00:17:57,970 --> 00:18:03,370 Speaker 1: an engineering curiosity was how finely balanced the skywalks were. 232 00:18:04,410 --> 00:18:08,850 Speaker 1: Any weaker and they would have collapsed during construction. Any 233 00:18:09,090 --> 00:18:13,490 Speaker 1: stronger and they might have lasted indefinitely. But they were 234 00:18:13,650 --> 00:18:18,610 Speaker 1: just strong enough to stay aloft until one busy, buzzing 235 00:18:18,730 --> 00:18:22,810 Speaker 1: Friday evening in the summer of eighty one, when hundreds 236 00:18:22,810 --> 00:18:27,050 Speaker 1: of people danced underneath the skywalks and a few dozen 237 00:18:27,130 --> 00:18:35,130 Speaker 1: more came to stand on them and watch. The first 238 00:18:35,170 --> 00:18:39,170 Speaker 1: responders to the disaster were weeping in frustration as they 239 00:18:39,210 --> 00:18:43,690 Speaker 1: tried to pry up the huge concrete slabs. People underneath 240 00:18:43,690 --> 00:18:47,210 Speaker 1: were begging for help, but the standard rescue equipment was 241 00:18:47,290 --> 00:18:51,570 Speaker 1: all but useless. As the words spread across Kansas City 242 00:18:51,610 --> 00:18:54,890 Speaker 1: of what was happening at the Hyatt, construction workers began 243 00:18:54,930 --> 00:18:59,050 Speaker 1: to arrive at the site, bringing jackhammers and oxya settling torches, 244 00:18:59,370 --> 00:19:03,970 Speaker 1: portable generators, and lights. The deputy fire chief used to 245 00:19:04,010 --> 00:19:07,290 Speaker 1: work part time at a construction crane operator just down 246 00:19:07,370 --> 00:19:11,290 Speaker 1: the street. He made the and before long the huge 247 00:19:11,410 --> 00:19:15,730 Speaker 1: cranes were on their way to the scene. Cindy Paulson 248 00:19:16,050 --> 00:19:20,290 Speaker 1: was outside, still looking for her father, when across the 249 00:19:20,370 --> 00:19:24,970 Speaker 1: chaos she saw her mother instead. The two rushed towards 250 00:19:24,970 --> 00:19:29,410 Speaker 1: one another. How did you get here, asked Cindy, Your 251 00:19:29,450 --> 00:19:35,090 Speaker 1: father called her mother replied he was perfectly safe. He 252 00:19:35,130 --> 00:19:38,690 Speaker 1: had left the hotel before the skywalks fell and only 253 00:19:38,730 --> 00:19:41,690 Speaker 1: heard about the accident on the radio. He had called 254 00:19:41,730 --> 00:19:44,730 Speaker 1: home to reassure his family, and Cindy's mother had rushed 255 00:19:44,770 --> 00:19:48,210 Speaker 1: to the scene to reassure Cindy. Cindy told her mother 256 00:19:48,410 --> 00:19:51,570 Speaker 1: to head home without her, she was going back in 257 00:19:51,810 --> 00:19:56,730 Speaker 1: to help. From time to time, doctor Wackerley would whistle 258 00:19:57,290 --> 00:20:00,050 Speaker 1: as a signal for the rescue effort to fall silent. 259 00:20:00,850 --> 00:20:05,570 Speaker 1: The rescuers, hundreds of them, would listen as trapped people 260 00:20:05,810 --> 00:20:09,850 Speaker 1: called out their names from under the rubble. The rescuers 261 00:20:09,850 --> 00:20:12,650 Speaker 1: did their best to mark the location of each one. 262 00:20:14,490 --> 00:20:18,330 Speaker 1: After the first hour or so, there wasn't much good news. 263 00:20:19,250 --> 00:20:22,170 Speaker 1: Most of the survivors were out, most of those who 264 00:20:22,250 --> 00:20:27,450 Speaker 1: remained were beyond help, but there was the occasional moment 265 00:20:27,530 --> 00:20:30,570 Speaker 1: to lift the spirits. At two o'clock in the morning, 266 00:20:30,930 --> 00:20:34,250 Speaker 1: a man, a woman, and a boy were pulled alive 267 00:20:34,570 --> 00:20:39,130 Speaker 1: from an air pocket under the wreckage. Mark Williams, his 268 00:20:39,290 --> 00:20:44,530 Speaker 1: legs wrenched around his ears, was still waiting. The water 269 00:20:44,650 --> 00:20:48,570 Speaker 1: around him had receded, but the voices of those buried 270 00:20:48,650 --> 00:20:53,930 Speaker 1: near by had also fallen silent. At three in the morning, 271 00:20:54,410 --> 00:20:59,410 Speaker 1: two massive cranes had smashed through the atrium's beautiful glass wall, 272 00:21:00,050 --> 00:21:02,770 Speaker 1: showering the shards across the blood and the dust on 273 00:21:02,810 --> 00:21:07,650 Speaker 1: the floor. Those all two heavy concrete slabs, were lifted 274 00:21:07,770 --> 00:21:11,530 Speaker 1: a little, letting rescuers call in and shine their torches. 275 00:21:12,730 --> 00:21:16,770 Speaker 1: The excited rescuers were now very close to Mark Williams, 276 00:21:16,770 --> 00:21:21,650 Speaker 1: which posed new and unexpected risks. He could hear a 277 00:21:21,770 --> 00:21:26,450 Speaker 1: jackhammer getting ever closer. Its chiseled tip brushed his ribs, 278 00:21:26,810 --> 00:21:31,170 Speaker 1: then stabbed down near his cross shut the jackhammer off, 279 00:21:31,210 --> 00:21:35,370 Speaker 1: you idiots, he yelled. During a brief pause. They did, 280 00:21:36,490 --> 00:21:40,530 Speaker 1: and a few minutes later Mark Williams, twisted like a 281 00:21:40,650 --> 00:21:44,850 Speaker 1: pretzel that very much alive, was pulled out of the rubble. 282 00:21:46,290 --> 00:21:51,050 Speaker 1: After that, there would be no more miracles. The rescuers 283 00:21:51,090 --> 00:21:54,770 Speaker 1: had spent the night cutting through dead bodies to reach 284 00:21:54,810 --> 00:21:59,370 Speaker 1: the living, trying to stabilize people with catastrophic injuries, digging 285 00:21:59,370 --> 00:22:04,490 Speaker 1: out the spouses who died together as they danced, eighteen 286 00:22:04,730 --> 00:22:09,530 Speaker 1: married couples, and finding the body of eleven year old 287 00:22:09,570 --> 00:22:12,970 Speaker 1: Pamela Coffee, the only child to die in the collapse. 288 00:22:15,890 --> 00:22:20,130 Speaker 1: Dawn had broken when the cranes lifted the final fallen 289 00:22:20,250 --> 00:22:24,370 Speaker 1: section of Skywalk. For some of the rescuers, it was 290 00:22:24,370 --> 00:22:27,930 Speaker 1: the moment when the long struggle became too much to bear. 291 00:22:28,810 --> 00:22:32,770 Speaker 1: There were thirty one people underneath. Every single one of 292 00:22:32,810 --> 00:22:48,530 Speaker 1: them was dead. Over the years, engineers have found a 293 00:22:48,690 --> 00:22:53,130 Speaker 1: horrid fascination in the Skywalk collapse. It's been a case 294 00:22:53,170 --> 00:22:57,570 Speaker 1: study in a thousand engineering classes, a kind of logic puzzle. 295 00:22:58,050 --> 00:23:02,290 Speaker 1: Spot the floor in the innocuous seeming design change. It's 296 00:23:02,290 --> 00:23:05,690 Speaker 1: because the error is so surprising, so easy to overlook, 297 00:23:06,010 --> 00:23:10,810 Speaker 1: and then so obvious in hindsight, letting the lower skywalk 298 00:23:11,010 --> 00:23:15,410 Speaker 1: hang off the upper skywalk was the simple fatal error, 299 00:23:16,290 --> 00:23:19,410 Speaker 1: so clear only when you imagine swinging off a rope 300 00:23:19,650 --> 00:23:22,450 Speaker 1: and trying to bear the weight of some one swinging 301 00:23:22,490 --> 00:23:26,130 Speaker 1: off you. The steel cross beams couldn't bear the double 302 00:23:26,170 --> 00:23:29,650 Speaker 1: weight focused to that small nut on the steel rod. 303 00:23:30,210 --> 00:23:33,450 Speaker 1: The beams buckled and slipped around the nut and off 304 00:23:33,490 --> 00:23:43,050 Speaker 1: the rods, and disaster followed almost instantly. After the tragedy, 305 00:23:43,330 --> 00:23:46,050 Speaker 1: there was plenty of commentary in places such as the 306 00:23:46,130 --> 00:23:50,330 Speaker 1: letters page of the Engineering News Record. Some pointed out 307 00:23:50,370 --> 00:23:53,290 Speaker 1: that it was no surprise that the original design concept 308 00:23:53,370 --> 00:23:58,210 Speaker 1: had been modified. That concept secured the upper skywalk by 309 00:23:58,290 --> 00:24:02,450 Speaker 1: resting it on nuts halfway up the vertical steel rods 310 00:24:02,450 --> 00:24:06,450 Speaker 1: simple until you think about it. How does each nut 311 00:24:06,530 --> 00:24:10,690 Speaker 1: get there? One possibility is to machine fifteen feet of 312 00:24:10,730 --> 00:24:13,890 Speaker 1: each rod with a fine screw thread and hope that 313 00:24:13,930 --> 00:24:17,850 Speaker 1: those threads remain undamaged while these six rods were installed 314 00:24:17,850 --> 00:24:22,410 Speaker 1: in a busy construction site, or perhaps custom made rods 315 00:24:22,450 --> 00:24:25,370 Speaker 1: slightly slimmer at one end than another so that the 316 00:24:25,490 --> 00:24:28,410 Speaker 1: nut can slide along until it reaches the thread in 317 00:24:28,450 --> 00:24:32,090 Speaker 1: the middle. There are other ways to get a nut 318 00:24:32,210 --> 00:24:34,970 Speaker 1: onto the middle of a long rod. But the original 319 00:24:35,010 --> 00:24:40,010 Speaker 1: design doesn't acknowledge that there's even an issue. No wonder 320 00:24:40,010 --> 00:24:44,410 Speaker 1: the contractor suggested a change. As one engineer commented, a 321 00:24:44,450 --> 00:24:48,730 Speaker 1: design that begs a change cannot be completely without blame 322 00:24:49,130 --> 00:24:53,370 Speaker 1: when the change is made. The letter's page was filled 323 00:24:53,410 --> 00:24:57,810 Speaker 1: with clever alternative solutions, but it's not hard to find 324 00:24:57,850 --> 00:25:01,930 Speaker 1: a solution once you clearly understand that switching to an 325 00:25:02,010 --> 00:25:05,450 Speaker 1: upper and lower rod posed a problem in the first place. 326 00:25:06,610 --> 00:25:11,730 Speaker 1: Nobody did. I worry that in focusing on the skywalk 327 00:25:11,850 --> 00:25:16,370 Speaker 1: collapse as a flaw in engineering design, we risk losing 328 00:25:16,450 --> 00:25:21,610 Speaker 1: sight of the real problem. Engineers will forevermore pay close 329 00:25:21,650 --> 00:25:26,170 Speaker 1: attention to the design of rod girder connections. But this 330 00:25:26,290 --> 00:25:30,570 Speaker 1: isn't really about the structure of a steel connection. It's 331 00:25:30,570 --> 00:25:35,210 Speaker 1: about the structure of a project. What failed wasn't just 332 00:25:35,290 --> 00:25:41,090 Speaker 1: a beam. What failed was a process turn away from 333 00:25:41,090 --> 00:25:45,770 Speaker 1: the powerful eyewitness reporting of the Kansas City Star and 334 00:25:45,850 --> 00:25:50,050 Speaker 1: pick up instead a special May two thousand symposium in 335 00:25:50,090 --> 00:25:55,170 Speaker 1: the Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities. In that symposium, 336 00:25:55,450 --> 00:26:00,410 Speaker 1: numerous engineers, including Jack Gillam himself, analyze what went wrong. 337 00:26:01,210 --> 00:26:06,530 Speaker 1: Gillem listed seventeen different factors contributing to the error. The 338 00:26:06,610 --> 00:26:11,450 Speaker 1: project was rushed, details weren't checked by external reviewers, senior 339 00:26:11,490 --> 00:26:16,130 Speaker 1: people resigned from the engineering company halfway through, important jobs 340 00:26:16,130 --> 00:26:21,490 Speaker 1: were outsourced. Gillam himself protested that we requested from the 341 00:26:21,610 --> 00:26:26,530 Speaker 1: architect owner and construction manager on three separate occasions that 342 00:26:26,610 --> 00:26:30,770 Speaker 1: we be permitted to provide full time inspection during the construction, 343 00:26:30,970 --> 00:26:35,730 Speaker 1: yet each time we would denied. Of course Gillem was 344 00:26:35,810 --> 00:26:39,370 Speaker 1: pleading his own case there, but the overall impression is clear. 345 00:26:40,290 --> 00:26:43,970 Speaker 1: It was a complicated project with lots of ins and outs, 346 00:26:44,130 --> 00:26:47,610 Speaker 1: lots of people coming and going. It's easy to see 347 00:26:47,610 --> 00:26:52,570 Speaker 1: how things could get missed. What's unnerving about this is that, well, 348 00:26:53,610 --> 00:26:57,370 Speaker 1: every big building is a complicated project. We have to 349 00:26:57,410 --> 00:27:02,090 Speaker 1: trust the project managers to cope. In his book The 350 00:27:02,170 --> 00:27:06,690 Speaker 1: Checklist Manifesto, The Surgeon at Algawande looks at how to 351 00:27:06,770 --> 00:27:12,130 Speaker 1: prevent accidents in modern medicine. It's all so complicated these days, 352 00:27:12,170 --> 00:27:16,530 Speaker 1: he argues. There are large medical teams, complex medical procedures, 353 00:27:16,810 --> 00:27:19,610 Speaker 1: lots of ways in which things can go wrong, often 354 00:27:19,690 --> 00:27:24,250 Speaker 1: because of a simple oversight. Gowande makes a compelling case 355 00:27:24,330 --> 00:27:29,010 Speaker 1: that this complexity can be tamed with checklists, a gree 356 00:27:29,130 --> 00:27:31,650 Speaker 1: list of what has to be done, everything from a 357 00:27:31,730 --> 00:27:35,410 Speaker 1: surgical team introducing themselves to each other, to ensuring that 358 00:27:35,410 --> 00:27:38,210 Speaker 1: there are the right supplies and spares on hand, to 359 00:27:38,290 --> 00:27:41,090 Speaker 1: making sure that you have the right patient on the 360 00:27:41,170 --> 00:27:46,210 Speaker 1: operating table in front of you. Checklists sound absurdly simple, 361 00:27:46,890 --> 00:27:51,170 Speaker 1: but in many cases they've been proved to work. But 362 00:27:51,290 --> 00:27:54,810 Speaker 1: what striking to me is where a Tulgowande originally got 363 00:27:54,850 --> 00:27:58,650 Speaker 1: the inspiration for this idea. It was talking to the 364 00:27:58,730 --> 00:28:02,490 Speaker 1: team who were building an eleven story extension to the 365 00:28:02,570 --> 00:28:07,530 Speaker 1: hospital where he worked, three thousand, eight hundred and eighty 366 00:28:07,570 --> 00:28:12,010 Speaker 1: five tons of steel, thirteen thousand cubic yards of concrete, 367 00:28:12,650 --> 00:28:18,770 Speaker 1: nineteen air handling units, sixteen elevators, one cooling tower, and 368 00:28:18,970 --> 00:28:25,050 Speaker 1: one backup emergency generator, and to make sure nothing was missed. Checklists, 369 00:28:25,210 --> 00:28:30,250 Speaker 1: lots of checklists. Checklists for schedules, checklists for communication, checklists 370 00:28:30,250 --> 00:28:33,650 Speaker 1: for checklists. But when it came to building the Hyatt 371 00:28:33,650 --> 00:28:38,490 Speaker 1: Regency in Kansas City, some vital boxes never got ticked. 372 00:28:40,210 --> 00:28:44,930 Speaker 1: There's one pivotal moment worth highlighting. It happened early in 373 00:28:45,050 --> 00:28:49,290 Speaker 1: January nineteen seventy nine, two and a half years before 374 00:28:49,330 --> 00:28:52,690 Speaker 1: the disaster. At the time, it didn't seem like much, 375 00:28:53,690 --> 00:28:57,210 Speaker 1: and that was the problem. It was simply a phone call, 376 00:28:57,770 --> 00:29:00,090 Speaker 1: which was a common enough way of communicating in the 377 00:29:00,170 --> 00:29:04,650 Speaker 1: days before email. A manager at the steel fabricator phoned 378 00:29:04,690 --> 00:29:09,450 Speaker 1: the structural engineers project manager and suggested that fateful which 379 00:29:09,490 --> 00:29:12,850 Speaker 1: from the long single rods to the shorter pairs of rods. 380 00:29:13,690 --> 00:29:16,930 Speaker 1: The structural engineer thought it through while still on the phone, 381 00:29:17,330 --> 00:29:21,530 Speaker 1: but missed the critical realization that the change would double 382 00:29:21,610 --> 00:29:25,250 Speaker 1: the load that the upper beams were supporting. He said 383 00:29:25,250 --> 00:29:29,650 Speaker 1: that the change sounded fine, but asked the steel fabricator 384 00:29:29,890 --> 00:29:36,010 Speaker 1: to submit the request through formal channels. That formal request 385 00:29:37,330 --> 00:29:43,570 Speaker 1: was never made. Do you see why I say this 386 00:29:43,730 --> 00:29:46,570 Speaker 1: was a process error as much as a failure of 387 00:29:46,690 --> 00:29:51,330 Speaker 1: structural engineering design. Someone makes a phone call with a request, 388 00:29:51,850 --> 00:29:55,370 Speaker 1: someone else says it sounds okay, but put it in writing. 389 00:29:55,930 --> 00:30:01,130 Speaker 1: It never gets put in writing. Nobody follows up. This 390 00:30:01,170 --> 00:30:04,170 Speaker 1: sort of thing happens all the time in offices all 391 00:30:04,250 --> 00:30:08,290 Speaker 1: over the world. Meeting notes are unclear or non existent, 392 00:30:08,610 --> 00:30:12,770 Speaker 1: or loss emails disappear down into the depths of an 393 00:30:12,810 --> 00:30:17,010 Speaker 1: overloaded inbox. People agree that some task needs to be 394 00:30:17,050 --> 00:30:20,650 Speaker 1: done but it's not quite clear who's responsible, and so 395 00:30:20,690 --> 00:30:24,570 Speaker 1: in the end, nobody is. We've all seen it happen. 396 00:30:25,410 --> 00:30:28,730 Speaker 1: It's just that usually when someone's a bit sloppy with 397 00:30:28,810 --> 00:30:34,730 Speaker 1: their to do list, nobody dies. This time, people did 398 00:30:35,690 --> 00:30:40,530 Speaker 1: a lot of people. Jack Gillum, the structural engineer with 399 00:30:40,650 --> 00:30:45,290 Speaker 1: overall responsibility for the project, explained the connection that failed 400 00:30:45,850 --> 00:30:49,810 Speaker 1: was never designed. The original detail of the connection as 401 00:30:49,850 --> 00:30:54,490 Speaker 1: shown on the contracts structural drawings, was only conceptual in nature. 402 00:30:55,130 --> 00:30:58,690 Speaker 1: Neither the original detail nor the double rod connection as 403 00:30:58,730 --> 00:31:04,010 Speaker 1: built was designed, so not a failure of design, an 404 00:31:04,050 --> 00:31:10,530 Speaker 1: absence of design because of a failure of process. When 405 00:31:10,650 --> 00:31:15,050 Speaker 1: the official investigation was completed by the National Bureau of Standards, 406 00:31:15,370 --> 00:31:19,250 Speaker 1: it concluded that, yes, the switch from long single rods 407 00:31:19,290 --> 00:31:22,810 Speaker 1: to short double rods was probably the difference between the 408 00:31:22,850 --> 00:31:27,170 Speaker 1: skywalks staying up and the skywalks falling. But it also 409 00:31:27,250 --> 00:31:31,010 Speaker 1: concluded that even the original design wasn't strong enough to 410 00:31:31,050 --> 00:31:35,370 Speaker 1: meet the requirements of Kansas City's building code. The original 411 00:31:35,410 --> 00:31:38,970 Speaker 1: design would almost certainly not have collapsed, which of course 412 00:31:39,290 --> 00:31:42,690 Speaker 1: is the important thing, but the original design was still 413 00:31:42,770 --> 00:31:47,130 Speaker 1: too weak. Nobody ever, seems to have checked that, and 414 00:31:47,370 --> 00:31:52,130 Speaker 1: nobody had noticed, not the structural engineers, not the steel fabricators, 415 00:31:52,530 --> 00:31:57,210 Speaker 1: not the building inspectors. In the arguments and legal disputes 416 00:31:57,210 --> 00:32:01,610 Speaker 1: that followed, the attorney representing the state licensing Board said 417 00:32:01,930 --> 00:32:05,410 Speaker 1: it wasn't a matter of doing something wrong, They just 418 00:32:05,610 --> 00:32:10,290 Speaker 1: never did it at all. Nobody ever did any calculations 419 00:32:10,330 --> 00:32:13,450 Speaker 1: to figure out whether or not the particular connection that 420 00:32:13,570 --> 00:32:17,610 Speaker 1: held the sky walks up would work. It got built 421 00:32:17,650 --> 00:32:20,890 Speaker 1: without anybody ever figuring out if it would be strong enough. 422 00:32:21,650 --> 00:32:26,970 Speaker 1: It just slipped through the cracks. Literally true, of course, 423 00:32:27,810 --> 00:32:31,610 Speaker 1: under the tremendous weight of two skywalks, the nut ripped 424 00:32:31,730 --> 00:32:35,130 Speaker 1: through the weakest point of the box beams, a welding 425 00:32:35,170 --> 00:32:39,810 Speaker 1: seam that cracked open. Metaphorically true as well. In between 426 00:32:39,850 --> 00:32:43,850 Speaker 1: the twoing and throwing, the resignations, and the outsourcing, everyone 427 00:32:43,890 --> 00:32:48,690 Speaker 1: assumed that someone had designed and checked the steel joint. 428 00:32:50,090 --> 00:32:56,970 Speaker 1: Nobody had. It slipped through the cracks. One hundred and 429 00:32:57,130 --> 00:33:02,210 Speaker 1: fourteen people died in the disaster. Almost two hundred were injured. 430 00:33:03,490 --> 00:33:07,410 Speaker 1: No criminal charges were filed, but Jack Gillerm and one 431 00:33:07,450 --> 00:33:10,610 Speaker 1: of his colleagues lost their life. Since to practice in Missouri, 432 00:33:11,490 --> 00:33:14,850 Speaker 1: Gillam spent his twilight years retelling the story of the 433 00:33:14,930 --> 00:33:20,410 Speaker 1: collapse as a cautionary tale for other construction professionals. He 434 00:33:20,490 --> 00:33:24,330 Speaker 1: often spoke to engineers about the disaster, hoping to scare 435 00:33:24,370 --> 00:33:28,370 Speaker 1: the daylights out of them. The buck stops with me, 436 00:33:28,890 --> 00:33:32,370 Speaker 1: he would tell them, that was my engineering seal on 437 00:33:32,410 --> 00:33:38,290 Speaker 1: the plans. Student hostess Cindy Paulson spent that night at 438 00:33:38,290 --> 00:33:42,050 Speaker 1: the hyat helping with the rescue effort. It took a 439 00:33:42,130 --> 00:33:46,610 Speaker 1: toll on her her grades. Once outstanding started to fall, 440 00:33:47,330 --> 00:33:50,050 Speaker 1: she took time out of her studies to try to reset, 441 00:33:50,090 --> 00:33:54,650 Speaker 1: but that didn't help either. She was later diagnosed with depression, 442 00:33:55,370 --> 00:33:57,850 Speaker 1: but she got on with life and found a career 443 00:33:58,010 --> 00:34:01,330 Speaker 1: selling real estate. She tries not to think too much 444 00:34:01,370 --> 00:34:04,690 Speaker 1: about the hyat, but she can't help but get nervous 445 00:34:04,730 --> 00:34:10,010 Speaker 1: on walkways. Mark Williams, the last person to be pulled 446 00:34:10,010 --> 00:34:13,490 Speaker 1: out of the rubble alive, spent two months in hospital, 447 00:34:13,810 --> 00:34:16,690 Speaker 1: much of it on dialysis because his kidneys had given 448 00:34:16,770 --> 00:34:19,930 Speaker 1: up under the strain. He spent a further two years 449 00:34:20,090 --> 00:34:24,530 Speaker 1: learning to walk again, a little unevenly, but not too bad. 450 00:34:25,890 --> 00:34:29,330 Speaker 1: He gave an upbeat assessment to the Kansas City Star. 451 00:34:30,250 --> 00:34:32,970 Speaker 1: We don't know what we can accomplish. What we can 452 00:34:33,010 --> 00:34:38,690 Speaker 1: withstand until we're tested. As a slogan for life, it's 453 00:34:38,690 --> 00:34:41,610 Speaker 1: a good one, but it was never supposed to be 454 00:34:41,650 --> 00:34:46,010 Speaker 1: a principle of engineering design. We rely on engineers to 455 00:34:46,050 --> 00:34:50,490 Speaker 1: get things right on the drawing board. We don't expect 456 00:34:50,490 --> 00:34:53,810 Speaker 1: to find out the hard way that sixty tons of 457 00:34:53,890 --> 00:34:58,010 Speaker 1: steel and concrete are floating in the sky on a 458 00:34:58,130 --> 00:35:25,090 Speaker 1: joint that nobody designed and nobody checked. A key source 459 00:35:25,170 --> 00:35:28,970 Speaker 1: for this episode was Donna McGuire's reporting for The Kansas 460 00:35:29,010 --> 00:35:32,050 Speaker 1: City Star in two thousand and one. For a full 461 00:35:32,090 --> 00:35:35,250 Speaker 1: list of references, check out the show notes at Tim 462 00:35:35,290 --> 00:35:42,570 Speaker 1: Harford dot com. Cautionary Tales is written by me Tim 463 00:35:42,610 --> 00:35:46,810 Speaker 1: Harford with Andrew Wright. It's produced by Ryan Dilley with 464 00:35:46,930 --> 00:35:50,810 Speaker 1: support from Courtney Guarino and Emily Vaughan. The sound design 465 00:35:50,850 --> 00:35:55,250 Speaker 1: and original music is the work of Pascal Wise. Julia 466 00:35:55,330 --> 00:35:59,010 Speaker 1: Barton edited the scripts. It features the voice talents of 467 00:35:59,130 --> 00:36:04,930 Speaker 1: Ben Crowe, Melanie Gutridge, Stella Harford, and Rufus Wright. The 468 00:36:05,010 --> 00:36:07,810 Speaker 1: show also wouldn't have been possible without the work of 469 00:36:07,890 --> 00:36:13,530 Speaker 1: Mia LaBelle, Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fane, John Schnarz, Carlie Migliori, 470 00:36:13,970 --> 00:36:19,690 Speaker 1: Eric Sandler, Royston Berserv, Maggie Taylor, Nicole Morano, Daniellow, Lakhan, 471 00:36:20,010 --> 00:36:23,570 Speaker 1: and Maya Kanig. Cautionary Tales is a production of the 472 00:36:23,610 --> 00:36:28,010 Speaker 1: Pushkin Industries. If you like the show, please remember to share, rate, 473 00:36:28,170 --> 00:36:30,690 Speaker 1: and review, and if you want to hear the show, 474 00:36:30,770 --> 00:36:35,010 Speaker 1: add free then listen to four exclusive Cautionary Tale shorts. 475 00:36:35,370 --> 00:36:38,090 Speaker 1: Then sign up for Pushkin Plus on the show page 476 00:36:38,290 --> 00:36:43,090 Speaker 1: in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin dot fm, slash Plus