Why the Hyatt Regency Walkways Really Collapsed

On July 17, 1981, two suspended walkways collapsed in the atrium of the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri, killing 114 people. The cause was a change to a steel connection that nobody properly checked. In this episode of ROOT CAUSE, we trace how a simple change from one hanger rod to two doubled the load on a critical connection, what the National Bureau of Standards found, and why Missouri's licensing board found the engineers responsible guilty of gross negligence. National Bureau of Standards, Investigation of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Walkways Collapse (NBS BSS 143, 1982): https://www.nist.gov/publications/inv... ASCE Civil Engineering Magazine, "The Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse" (2007): https://www.asce.org/publications-and... In memory of the 114 people who lost their lives. ROOT CAUSE: The Engineering Behind the Headline. #HyattRegency #EngineeringDisasters #ROOTCAUSE