On this day, July 17, 1981, a pair of suspended walkways hanging above the lobby of the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapsed during a tea dance, killing 114 people. At the time, it was the deadliest structural collapse in U.S. history, and the episode remains a critical example for those studying engineering ethics and errors.
The cause of the collapse was a design flaw. A Missouri administrative law judge found that in the rush to complete the 40-story hotel, two engineers had shown “conscious indifference” to the welfare of the public.
Jack D. Gillum and Associates was not found criminally negligent, but it lost its license to be an engineering firm.
-Scott McCabe
