Death in the Silo

The job of drilling nuclear-missile launching sites deep into the earth makes construction of the pyramids look like a Tinker Toy exercise. Yet despite such everyday troubles as strikes and material shortages, the work on the 207 ICBM silos now under construction in the U.S.

has been no more risky than bridge building. Last week at Site No. 2--one of the twelve Atlas missile launching pads being dug near Roswell, N.Mex.--ironworkers began removing the steel outriggers, which stabilized an unmanned Lorain crane poised near the edge of the 172-ft. hole. The huge crane rolled through a wooden railing, toppled over backwards. Then, while crews watched helplessly, the boom toppled and the crane slid over the silo's lip. It hurtled downward, brushed workmen and scaffolding off the sides of the hole, crashed in flames at the bottom, killing a total of six and injuring 14.

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