Abstract: At 4:30 p.m. on February 18, 1987, Employee #1, who had been laying brick, was descending from a 22 foot Morgan scaffold at the end of the work day. He was carrying a bucket full of small hand tools. A coworker on the scaffold saw Employee #1 descend three or four steps on the ladder and then fall. Another coworker saw him falling, face up, under the ladder. Employee #1 was killed instantly when his head hit the metal base of the scaffold. The ladder had been secured loosely at the top by several turns of baling wire around the left side rail only. After the accident, the top of the ladder was found lying on the scaffold crossbracing, 7 feet below the platform. The most likely cause of the accident is that Employee #1 lost his one-hand grip on the ladder and could not recover. As he was grabbing for a handhold, his body swung under the ladder and probably dislodged it. Had the ladder been properly secured, it might have saved him, but it cannot be shown that the ladder became dislodged before the fall. Weather was not a factor; the ladder was clean and dry.