by DANIEL EDWARD ROSEN and staff writers ANTHONY M. DESTEFANO, MICHAEL FRAZIER, CHAU LAM, ROCCO PARASCANDOLA and ANDREW STRICKLER - Written by PARASCANDOLA
City officials have suspended all crane operations throughout the city this weekend as they investigate the cause of a stunning Upper East Side catastrophe that killed two construction workers and badly injured a third when a crane crashed into a building and plummeted to the street.
The Friday morning collapse - at an East 91st Street site the Buildings Department has investigated several times - comes two months after a March 15 crane disaster on East 51st Street that killed seven people, prompting stepped-up inspections and Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster's resignation.
The crane's turntable, the base that holds the operator's cab, which broke loose Friday, will be analyzed for mechanical failure, said a city buildings official who requested anonymity.
Acting Commissioner Robert LiMandri suspended all city tower crane operations until Monday.
"What has happened is unacceptable and intolerable," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at the scene at First Avenue and East 91st Street.
The accident happened just after 8 a.m. at a site where construction workers have erected 13 floors of what is supposed to be a 32-story residential building.
Without warning came a roar that some witnesses thought was a terrorist bomb, others a low-flying jet.
It was instead the tower crane, snapping from its turntable some 200 feet above street level, its cab, boom and machine deck falling south and crashing into an apartment building across the street at 354 East 91st St., authorities said.
"We just heard metal and scraping, and it was so loud," says Leonard Lorusso, 38. He and his girlfriend were asleep when the crane hit their building. "It was like tanks driving through the living room."
The crane tore through balconies, busted windows and knocked loose bricks before crashing to the ground in a heap of twisted metal.
Remarkably, no one in that building was hurt, but crane operator Donald Leo, 30, was dead by the time rescue workers removed him from the cab.
With his death, investigators lost the witness who could have likely told them the most about what caused the collapse.
LiMandri said a weld that failed is a key part of the probe.
The second construction worker who was killed, Ramadan Kurtaj, 27, was pinned beneath a part of the crane that hit East 91st Street with such force that it became embedded several feet into the street.
"He had a pulse and he was breathing, but he was unresponsive," said Fire Lt. Stephen Hagan, of Ladder Company 43. "We had to use air bags to lift the crane off him."
That took just under eight minutes, Hagan said. But Kurtaj went into cardiac arrest and died at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
A third worker, Simeon Alexis, was at the same hospital in serious condition with a chest injury. A pedestrian was treated at Metropolitan Hospital Center for minor injuries and released.
The collapse snarled morning traffic and forced seven buildings to be evacuated, including the one struck by the crane. Police were assigned to guard each floor at that building to prevent looting.
How it happened
1) Top portion of a crane breaks loose at 8:06 a.m. (Section of crane that collapsed (200 feet total height)
2) Crane falls south, strikes apartment building at 354 E. 91st St. gouging out walls.
3) Debris falls to the street, killing two workers and injuring one worker and one pedestrian. (333 East 91st Street)
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