Heart-stopping moment worker barely escapes towering crane collapse

by · Mail Online

A quick-thinking construction worker barely escaped as a towering crane collapsed at a port in Chile.

Footage filmed by a worker at the site showed the crane hoisting up a large structure at Port Antofagasta in northern Chile on Tuesday.

The crane then began to buckle, with a worker inside the cab seen leaping out just before it toppled over.

In the clip, a person can be heard saying, 'You have to let him know right away,' apparently referring to the impending collapse.

A crane operator jumped from his cab as the crane began to topple over a construction site in Antofagasta, Chile on Tuesday
The crane's cab flipped over seconds after the operator was able to escape

The Antofagasta Port Company said in a statement that the operator was not injured in the accident.

The company said the equipment was operated by Belfi construction and that no one was injured in the incident.

A similar accident involving Belfi took place in September 2023, when a crane collapsed at a port in the Antofagasta town of Mejillones. No injuries were reported in that incident. 

The crane had been hoisting up a large structure  when it began to buckle
No injuries were reported in the collapse 

Social media user were quick to slamming the construction company over the recent accident.

'Who the f*** gave that guy his certification?' one person wrote, adding: 'Everyone gets fired for idiocy.'

'Even the workers who were watching realized that it was not feasible to lower the structure,' another commented. 'And what were the engineer and operator doing?'