Failure Analysis Report on
Kansas City Hyatt (Sky Walk Collapsed)
From:

Introduction
On 17 July 1981, approximately 2,000 people had gathered in the atrium of Hyatt Regency to participate in and watch a dance contest. The walkways on the second, third, and fourth floor were packed with visitors as they watched over the active lobby, which was also full of people. The fourth floor bridge was suspended directly over the second floor bridge, with the third floor walkway several meters away from the other two. Suddenly bang happened and forth floor bridge collapsed on the second floor bridge and then both collapsed on the lobby. This misguided construction disaster created so much of violation in public by killing 114 people. So here this report has an explanation on: Why did it happen? Who was affected? What could have been done?

1. Why did it happen?
The manufacturing method of three major beams carrying bridge, vertical supported rods and locking bolts was as per the design. And the material used to manufacture was the iron steel. But the problem was in the design of the bridge. As per calculations of the design, the allowable carrying load and tensile strength of the rods and bolts were not enough to carry sufficient load. There was only 60% of the minimum required 151 KN of load by Kansas City building codes. In addition to that the design had been changed by contractor during the construction in which rods were allowed to carry two bridges. So construction of the bridge was worse than bad. There was one more fault in the design. Three major iron steel beams of the bridge were square instead of “I” beam which even decrease the strength of the beam.
Image Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/

2. Who was affected?
There was a violation of the Health Federal Codes and Kansas City building codes. At the time of disaster the Dance Competition was running. There were around 114 people dead and 216 people injured. Over $140 million was awarded to victims and their families according to Civil Law Suits. There was around 65 tonnes of wreckage. Both engineers had their Missouri professional engineering license were revoked and lost their membership.

3. What could have been done?