Hundreds of news stories have been written recently about the tragic crane collapse in Mecca that claimed 107 lives and injured more than 200 others. The investigations into what exactly went wrong began soon after. On Tuesday, Saudi officials suspended the contractor, Saudi Binladin Group, from new contracts until all legal matters are settled, according to NBC News. Today, Liebherr released a press release statement on their findings after Liebherr crane experts visited the site of the collapse.

The crane that collapsed was Liebherr’s LR 11350 crawler crane, which has a 2,976,000 pound maximum lifting capacity at 39 feet. According to the press release, the crane’s boom was erected approximately 190 meters (620 feet) at the time of the collapse. On the day of the collapse a strong thunderstorm rolled through the area and CNN’s weather service reported winds up to 80km/h (50mph) and a nearby Liebherr Tower Crane recorded winds of 105km/h (65mph). During the time of high winds, Liebherr says that the crawler crane titled over.

“The operating instructions of the LR 11350 and the associated ‘Wind Speed Charts’ show that the crawler crane could not withstand such a high wind load and that the boom should have been lowered to the ground preventatively to avoid the tilting of the crawler crane,” the press release said.

The below tweet, by Telegraph News, shows the crawler crane on its back after the collapse

Mecca crane collapse: Saudi king sanctions Binladin Group after deadly accident http://t.co/4mBq5LE9db pic.twitter.com/E2V05rDod1
— Telegraph News (@TelegraphNews) September 15, 2015

The findings of the investigations of the Liebherr crane experts from Ehingen are available now: Crane in Mecca was technically faultless | Liebherr

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