Posted on 06/09/2002 4:17:45 PM PDT by knighthawk
KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait - An American helicopter pilot today led a dramatic rescue of three construction workers from the top of a burning high-rise in Kuwait City.
"Captain Steven," the private pilot of a leading Kuwaiti businessman, hovered a helicopter over the building, lowering a basket to rescue the men one by one from a crane on top of the 30-story block as thick smoke billowed from the blaze.
It was not immediately known why the top four floors of the building under construction caught fire. It is being built to house a new Marriott hotel in the heart of oil-rich Kuwait's banking and financial center.
Two of the rescued workers were thought to be from the Indian sub-continent and the third Iranian. They were rushed away from the area, which police had earlier sealed off.
1. For safety reasons (i.e. suicide jumpers), access doors to the roof were locked. Suicidal jumpers killing people in the plaza when they hit the ground were a greater threat before 9-11 than jets crashing into them and causing them to collapse. Statistically, the risk of jumpers on a daily basis are probably still greater than the risk of jets hitting.
2. The smoke and heat were too intense. The winds at such a height are normally so strong that they make landings challenging. Add in billowing smoke and intense heat which strongly affects air currents, and you
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