Abstract: At approximately 9:15 a.m. on September 19, 1998, Employees #1 through #3 were on a welded and center-bolted trapezoidal steel I-beam mechanical platform, 27 1/2 ft wide by 74 ft long (long side) by 54 ft long (short side) at the construction site of the New Orleans Sports Arena, adjacent to the Superdome. At the time of the accident, this major construction project was approximately 40 percent completed and erection of the roof structure of the Sports Arena had recently begun. Cantilevered box beams had been placed and the roof support girders had been positioned on the east corner of the arena. Derr Construction could not place the mechanical platform until the roof girders were set because the platform was to be suspended from hangers attached to the girders. As a result, Derr decided to assemble the entire structure on the ground and just hand-tighten the bolted connections, allowing the assembly to move as they connected each hanger. They ran two or three trials to determine the feasibility of lifting the entire structure at one time and the best placement for the slings. No problems were encountered during these practice runs, so Derr lifted the platform to a shoring tower that was erected on the fifth level of the arena. The crane operator rested part of the platform on the stadium seating structure and part on the shoring tower. The Derr crew had started to lift the platform into place to connect it to the hangers when the steel platform collapsed and all three employees fell, suffering serious injuries. They were transported to a local hospital and later transferred to hospitals out-of-state that were closer to their respective families. At the time the platform collapsed, the bolted connections, two on the long side and one on the short side, were still only hand-tightened.