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<DIV>The Hair Hang incident came down to a bad choice of gear. Carabineers are
not designed to be tri axially loaded yet less expensive shackles are, even
then, it did not meet the criteria for a 10:1 design factor. A 5/8" shackle
could have solved this effectively. Given the load I would have preferred to see
a longer bridle line lessening the angle at the attachment point as well.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>That October after the accident at our advanced aerial and acrobatic
rigging workshop at LDI, we did destructive testing and recreated the load angle
on a stock carabineer. It failed exactly as predicted. Hopefully this slow
motion video link will work.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="https://www.facebook.com/ray.pierce.37/videos/596373233825142/">https://www.facebook.com/ray.pierce.37/videos/596373233825142/</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The Espana incident was reportedly traced back to a cotter pin slipping out
releasing the pin and eventually the sheave on a block with no lower back
up. For flying performers we now use blocks that have some form of lower
containment to prevent the same problem.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Ray</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Ray Pierce</DIV>
<DIV>Hollywood Aerial Arts.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 7/9/2016 10:32:00 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
stagecraft@theatrical.net writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" color=#000000 size=2 face=Arial>with
Ringling , , , it varies . . <BR><BR>when Desi Espana fell to her death
on the GOLD unit . . it was I believe on Ringling supplied gear . .
<BR><BR>from what I recall it was an open faced block and the pin came out
just after she was lifted to max height <BR><BR>( the block was used to lift a
number of different acts over the course of the show ,) <BR><BR>if she had
been on rigging supplier by her husband and her brother in law . . two of the
best in the biz . . . she would be alive today . . <BR><BR>googled like crazy
to find a report on that accident . . and couldn’t find one . . only a quote
from Ken Feld <BR><BR><BR>+++++++<BR>L.G.: Did you ever, to your satisfaction,
find out the cause of the accident that killed Dessi Espana?<BR><BR>K.F.: I
believe it had something to do with a rigging
situation.<BR>+++++++++<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>> On Jul 9, 2016, at 10:15
AM, Dale Farmer via Stagecraft <stagecraft@theatrical.net>
wrote:<BR>> <BR>> I don't know if this was the case with this act.
But traditionally the aerial artists in circuses did their own rigging and
construct their own special devices. I don't know who might have been
involved in the design of the rigging and the apparatus, and what their level
of education in the art of circus rigging and the
engineering.<BR><BR><BR>____________________________________________________________<BR>For
list information see <http://stagecraft.theprices.net/><BR>Stagecraft
mailing
list<BR>Stagecraft@theatrical.net<BR>http://theatrical.net/mailman/listinfo/stagecraft_theatrical.net</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>