Mast Explosion

Here is a link to security camera footage of the mast explosion. I was the photog running the shot and you can see my reporter and I run from the truck. We are both very thankful that not was was hurt or killed. The station is still trying to determine what happened and I don't want to take any guesses as to a cause but something went really wrong. I think it is just another example of how dangerous our jobs are.

http://local21news.com/news/feature...mera-mast-falls-cbs-21-live-truck-10196.shtml
 
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Here is a link to security camera footage of the mast explosion. I was the photog running the shot and you can see my reporter and I run from the truck. We are both very thankful that not was was hurt or killed. The station is still trying to determine what happened and I don't want to take any guesses as to a cause but something went really wrong. I think it is just another example of how dangerous our jobs are.

http://local21news.com/news/feature...mera-mast-falls-cbs-21-live-truck-10196.shtml
 
Circa 2001 our station had a parabolic dish mounted instead of the goldenrods. The engineer knew it was too heavy and drag prone for the mount, but the GM wanted the dish. So over time, the bolts slowly sheared off...and it feel from about 30 feet while I was raising it. It was at a mall, but luckily we were on a not very used entrance. It could have ended very, very badly.
 
Two thoughts...

I find the word "explosion" to be somewhat of an exaggeration describing this.

Secondly...have to wonder how old that truck is. It is far from new and many of us are familiar with tv stations that prefer to run old, unsafe trucks into the ground rather than spend money to truly maintain a safe, reliable piece of equipment.

My take...the station was very lucky no one was seriously hurt.
 
Similar story

Back in the day when we still had goldenrods, our mast used to stick. It would build up pressure, then it would go up all the way. However, our engineers weren't very concerned. Finally, the pressure got so great that the golden rods launched like a missile from the top of the mast! They flew up until the cables caught, and then ended up hanging from the top of the mast.
 
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