Collapse
On 8 August 1991 at 16:00 UTC a catastrophic failure, caused by an error in exchanging the guy-wires on the highest stock, led to the collapse of the mast. The mast first bent and then snapped at roughly half its height. The helix building and the transmitter building (including the transmitter devices in it) were not damaged.
An investigating committee determined that blame lay with Mostostal Zabrze, which built and maintained the mast. The construction coordinator and the chief of the Mostostal division that built the mast were accused of causing the collapse. The former was sentenced to two and a half years in prison, the latter to two years.
Since the collapse of the Warsaw radio mast, the tallest structure in Poland has been the FM radio and TV transmission mast at Olsztyn-Pieczewo, measuring 360 metres.
After the collapse, the KVLY-TV mast outside Fargo, North Dakota, USA, regained its title as the world's tallest structure, standing 628.8 m (2,063 ft), until the Burj Khalifa exceeded this height in April 2008.
Read more about this topic: Warsaw Radio Mast
Famous quotes containing the word collapse:
“The Roman world is in collapse but we do not bend our neck.”
—Jerome (c. 340–420)
“At the crash of economic collapse of which the rumblings can already be heard, the sleeping soldiers of the proletariat will awake as at the fanfare of the Last Judgment and the corpses of the victims of the struggle will arise and demand an accounting from those who are loaded down with curses.”
—Karl Liebknecht (1871–1919)
“I confidently predict the collapse of capitalism and the beginning of history. Something will go wrong in the machinery that converts money into money, the banking system will collapse totally, and we will be left having to barter to stay alive. Those who can dig in their garden will have a better chance than the rest. I’ll be all right; I’ve got a few veg.”
—Margaret Drabble (b. 1939)