Crossville man dies after falling 80 feet while working on antenna

Kenneth Waddell, 30, died after he fell approximately 80 feet from the top of an antenna on Saturday, Sept. 29. Not sure is if he was a ham. R.I.P.


https://www.wbir.com/article/news/l...king-on-antenna-in-putnam-county/51-600107520

 

No callsign attached to that name in ULS....

 

Horrific story. Apparently Kenneth Waddell was a non-Ham but a well experienced tower pro voluntarily working on a Ham tower, probably that of Dale W9WBA who is listed as being in Crossville and is mentioned in this more detailed report. Perhaps he had recently relocated to Franklin Court which is about 40 miles west.

John, WØPV

"On Saturday morning, Ken Mitchell Waddell, 30, of Crossville, Tenn. kissed his wife, Cadie, and their five children goodbye and drove 45 minutes to Cookeville to help erect a 70-foot guyed tower for a ham radio operator on private property.

Late in the afternoon, expecting him to be home shortly for dinner with their five children, she received the horrific news that her husband had passed away when the structure he was erecting collapsed.

As a tower climber for more than 12 years with his most recent position being a construction manager for MasTec Network Solutions, Waddell and Dale Darling did a pre-check of the new anchors to ensure that they were structurally secure and then proceeded to erect the new Rohn 25G tower.

Waddell was the only individual on the tower when he was preparing to attach the second set of guy wires at 70 feet. A previous set had been installed at the 40-foot level.

Darling, a long-time ham radio operator, informed Wireless Estimator this morning that suddenly one guy let loose from the anchor and the tower collapsed, plummeting Waddell to the ground on the section he was tied off to.

Although one news report said that “apparently a guy wire stabilizing the tower on a turnbuckle snapped,” Darling said that it was not a failure of the guy wire or the half-inch turnbuckle, but it appeared to have been caused by a shackle failure.

Putnam County investigators searched for the shackle, but could not locate it on the Franklin Court property, according to Darling.

Waddell was pronounced dead at the scene.

Cadie said she has been overwhelmed by the support she has been receiving from family and friends, and from management and Kenny’s associates at MasTec, even though the voluntary side project had nothing to do with her husband’s employment."

(There is more about the deceased and his family, including photos, on the news story link.)

 

So it just walked off on its own? Sounds like a CYA coverup.

 

Prolly snapped and was flung; consider the tension a guy wire would have with the load of a man 30 feet above it ... I would not expect something like that to simply fall straight down like a 'dead weight load' (like Newton's apple) to use a term ...

 

Suspicion falls directly on you! Hmmm. How paranoid can you get?

 

This was discussed last nite on the W5KUB.com weekly show.

He leaves behind a wife and 5 young children.

A GOFUNDME account has been setup.

last nites show is still available on WKUB.com

 

With 100's of pounds of guy line tension incidents like this tend to launch pieces like that into the next county if not low earth orbit.

Those flimsy cotter pins holding the main shackle pin secure always make me nervous. Then there is this report from last year about below standards COUNTERFEIT knock-off Crosby brand shackles being circulated. It wouldn't surprise me if Rohn got hit like that some day too.

 

And then there are the cheap hams who complain genuine Rohn parts are 'too expensive". What does a disaster like this cost you?

 

A very sad story best to wait for all the details before making assumptions.

 

Looking harder at the info in the story that the tower site location was on Franklin Court, there is a Ham in Putnam county, K5FC, with an address on that street. Perhaps Dale W9WBA was just assisting with the tower erection. Scroll down his Zed bio to see photos of him as a tower climber.

However, look closely at those photos of the tower. The guy grips are just looped around tower legs, not using guy assemblies / torque arms. Hmmmm.

 

Oh what an awful story. All my heart to his wife and children.

 

Thanks for making the initial post. Not nitpicking the choice of words, we know what you meant, but want to point out that technically Kenneth did not FALL from the antenna. He apparently was properly harnessed, strapped on, and, unfortuately, was forced to ride the broken tower down as it collapsed under him.

I've known pro tower climbers who if they climb towers provided by Hams at all, some outright refuse, they cringe worrying about the procurement history and resulting quality of components, obtained at Hamfests and hardware stores. And are constantly fighting the tendency of many cheap Hams to cut corners.

At the end of the day though its still the pilots choice to fly in an under validated home-built craft. Sigh.

 

Everything.