A crane wire snapped at a Queens job site amid high winds Tuesday and sent a 6,500-pound steel beam crashing down on the cab — killing the operator and his flag man.
Winds were gusting at close to 40 mph — above the city legal limit of 30 mph to operate — near the Briarwood work site at 82nd Avenue and 134th Street when the massive I-beam dropped from the fourth floor onto the Liebherr mobile machine at 12:11 p.m.
The city is investigating whether the winds were a factor in the tragedy, but officials said it was not likely.
George Smith, a 47-year-old crane operator, was killed along with Alessandro Ramos, a 43-year-old flag man, who was right outside the cab guiding the piece of steel when the beam disengaged, officials said.
Smith’s neighbors in Mill Basin, Brooklyn, were shocked by the tragedy.
“He had such a heart of gold,” neighbor Ruth Pulansky said. “He was a great guy. He used to build cars, Corvettes. He just bought himself a new sports car.”
The distraught wife of Ramos said the last words from her husband this morning were, “Bye, my love.”
“He was a good husband, and a good father,” Sandra Ramos said through tears.
The flag man’s daughter said she missed her dad and thought there should be an investigation into the cause of the accident.
“The last time I saw him, I didn’t hold him,” Josseline Ramos said. “I want justice, and don’t believe the wind [had] anything to do with it.”
Department of Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler offered his condolences.
“Those two gentlemen won’t be going home tonight and we’re very, very sorry about that,” Chandler said.
He said it appears the rigging rope may have failed and caused the beam to plummet.
“It was a 6,500-pound beam going up four stories,” said Chandler. “I would say the wind would not have a major factor on that. I don’t want to eliminate it completely; we’ll check.”
A distraught worker at the scene said: “We just lost two of our own. We put our lives on the line every day to feed our family. This is what we do.”
Cranes Express Inc. owns the equipment, which was being used to erect a residential building. It passed an annual inspection in June, a Buildings source said.
A worker for the company, reached by phone Tuesday, said, “I have no comment or information at this time.”
Last January, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration slapped the crane company with a $3,500 fine for a “serious” violation at a Brooklyn job site.
Following a February crane collapse that killed a 38-year-old man in Lower Manhattan, the city implemented a new policy that required certain cranes to stop operating and go into “safety mode” when steady winds are forecast to exceed 20 mph or gusts to exceed 30 mph.
But that did not apply to the mobile crane involved in Tuesday’s tragedy. That crane is allowed to operate in winds up to 30 mph.
Additional reporting by Lorena Mongelli, Natalie Musumeci and Larry Celona