Breaking news, very serious, hot off the email. A technician was killed in the ATLAS pit at CERN today. Apparently a crane dropped a load on him. It happened at 17:30 local time. All underground areas were closed immediately. There will be an investigation.
ATLAS (technical home page, public home page) is one of the two very large high energy physics detectors being built for the Large Hadron Collider. It is being built in a large cavernous collider hall far underground where collisions at the LHC will take place. This hall is located just outside of the main gate at CERN.
This is a tragedy for everyone involved. My deepest sympathies for the technician’s family.
October 25th, 2005 at 10:03 pm
That’s awful news. I’ve been to the ATLAS pit, and it’s an awe-inspiring sight, but there must be a certain amount of danger in working with such huge machinery.
October 25th, 2005 at 11:40 pm
Oh dear, that’s terrible.
In my experience–I worked in the LHCb (once Delphi) pit this summer–the technicians were very competent, so I hope this was just a terrible accident. There is so much that can go wrong down there. There was a plaque by the elevator at the LHCb pit that was in memorial of the seven (I believe) people who died on the construction of LEP and associated experiments.
October 26th, 2005 at 1:30 am
There is a rule of thumb for suspended loads, even in high research areas like this one. It’s a safety factor that should be embedded, much like any enterprise that handles such large equipment.
Any tragedy like this one is awful, and my condolences as well.
October 26th, 2005 at 3:44 am
I think it didn’t happen in the ATLAS pit, but in the tunnel somewhere.
Doesn’t make it better for the victim and his family, but maybe will ease the minds of those who know ATLAS technicians.
October 26th, 2005 at 10:51 am
The CERN website now has a short message from the Director-General.
October 26th, 2005 at 11:42 am
Lesson: it’s better to be a physicist than a technician.
October 26th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
A very sad story – I have many friends from the Bohr Institute and other places, which are working on the ATLAS project and therefore in turn, also the LHC project, which could prove to be one of the most important science-projects of 20XY.
My heartfelt condolences to family and friends involved…
October 26th, 2005 at 2:53 pm
Oh no!!! :’(
October 26th, 2005 at 4:01 pm
This really is awful news. As important as science is, this should never happen.