Will tower cranes fail?
OH god I don t want to hear it.we just heard the tragic
accident in Grand Mosque Mecca and lost over 190 people. I’m not very certain
how many of you continuously reading my blog but if there is anyone who can
remember tower crane trap (http://kanchana2015.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2015-07-01T00:00:00-07:00&updated-max=2015-07-27T22:39:00-07:00&max-results=10&start=5&by-date=false)?
I did read it myself because of the tragic which occurred in
Grand Mosque in Mecca Saudi Arabia. But it is not a failure of the tower
crane.so far I did not hear failure of a tower crane. The accident occurred on
a temporary crane.
Hajj refers to a Muslim's pilgrimage to Mecca and is one of
the five pillars of Islam. At least once in his or her lifetime, each Muslim is
expected to undertake this pilgrimage the sacred city of Islam. This holy
journey is called the hajj in Arabic. While a visit to Mecca is beneficial any
time of the year, it must take place during the month of Dhul-Hajj (the last
month of the Islamic year) to fulfill the requirements of the hajj.
Not only Sri Lankan Muslims throughout the world pilgrims to Mecca is an obligation in Islam religion. This has been practiced from Malcom
X,Mohammad Ali. Rich or poor, black or white, Asian or European in Mecca nothing
matters, as long as you are belong to Islam religion In Mecca everyone is
equal.
Those who on the pilgrims on a Mecca have no hope of returning.
After pilgrims if they were unable to make the return trip they accept it as a
God’s wish. Due to various reason accidents are common. Also devotees on a hard
journey through harsh environmental conditions. With modern facilities there
are direct flights available to Mecca, but over hundreds’ years ago the journey
was through desert .If something happened it’s the wish of the God the
almighty.
About 2 million Muslims complete the hajj each year. The
government of Saudi Arabia has contributed significant resources to maintain
the holy places and manage the crowd of pilgrims. Despite the large numbers
seen in Mecca each year, only a small percentage of Muslims have fulfilled the
duty. Those who have done so may add the title hajj or hajji to their names.
In Sri Lanka we have Al Hajj Moheedeen Beg, who was a devotee
of Islam as well he was a good singer. Most importantly most of his songs were
about Lord Buddha or related to Buddhist stories. We Sri Lankan during the
Wesak Poya day we will be hearing his songs in almost every Buddhist temple.
Anyway with such a
vast number of people in one place at one time, failures of crowd control and
other problems have sometimes led to disaster. Some of the recent tragedies
associated with the hajj have included. If few to mention On July 31, 1987, Iranian pilgrims’ riot,
causing the deaths of over 400 people and July 2, 1990, a stampede inside a
pedestrian tunnel leading to Mecca led to the deaths of 1402 pilgrims. Again In
1994, another stampede killed 270 pilgrims. Likewise there are unavoidable incidents
occurred within the Mecca premises.
But long before those there was a plane crash with Indonesian
pilgrims in 1974.this was happened in Sri Lanka. Recently I went to Norton
Bridge in Sri Lanka and able to see some of remaining monuments. The actually what
happened was
The Flight 138 was a chartered flight from Surabaya,
Indonesia to Colombo, Sri Lanka. The aircraft was operated on behalf of Garuda
Indonesia. On 4 December 1974, the aircraft, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-55CF,
crashed into a mountain shortly before landing, killing all 191 people aboard –
182 Indonesian hajj pilgrims bound for Mecca, and 9 crew members.
The flight is said to have departed Surabaya, Indonesia at
approximately 12.03 UTC heading to Jeddah planning a stop at Bandaranayake
airport, Colombo, Sri Lanka. At around 16.30 UTC Colombo control cleared the
flight. At 16.38 UTC another air traffic controller is said to have intervened
and cleared the flight down to 5000 feet and reported clearing to 8000 feet.
Colombo approach then cleared the flight down to 2000 feet at 16.44 and told
the flight to expect a runway 04 approach.
The crew aboard the flight was then
asked to report when the airfield was in sight. The crew then continued their
descent until the aircraft crashed into Saptha
Kanya Mountain at an altitude of approximately 4,355 feet and at around 40
nm east of Colombo. All 191 passengers and crew were killed. The Saptha Knaya
Mountains (seven virgin mountains) belongs to Central hills, Even today there
are some places which no one explored.
The crash remains the worst in Sri Lankan aviation history
and the third-deadliest involving a DC-8, after Arrow Air Flight 1285 and
Nigeria Airways Flight 2120. At the time, it was the second-deadliest aviation
accident, after the loss of Turkish Airlines Flight 981 which occurred earlier
that same year.
Now there is a remaining old landing tire placed near the
Norton Bridge and a monument plaque. But still if you talk with old people of
the town there are people claiming that there were participate the mission on
dead bodies in 1974.some stories are true some are fictions.
Anyway friction are sometimes better than real, we have a
frictional movie named after Saptha Kanya,
but nothing is truly related to the Mountain. The movie became popular among my
school days and it had very nice songs.
During the time movie main actor of the
movie have been subjected many controversial stories. But still he manages to
stay in the popular line not only as an actor as well TV presenter, singer etc.
He did not failed either what happened in his personal life. May be its Gods
wish…..
