CNN 20: Hotel Walkway Collapses, July 17, 1981
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: First today's edition of "CNN 20."</s>BOB CAIN, CNN ANCHOR: When two giant walkways collapsed last night at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri was faced with its worst disaster ever.</s>CHARLES HOFF, CNN DEPUTY NATIONAL MANAGING EDITOR: I was Chicago bureau chief at the time, and I got a call late on a Friday night at about 11:00 that there had been a disaster at a hotel in Kansas City. One hundred and fourteen people were killed when two walkways collapsed over an atrium during a tea dance, where about 2,000 people were in attendance. It was a horrific scene. Two huge suspended walkways, one had collapsed on top of the other, and they both had fell into the lobby floor, the atrium. It was a story about, first of all, a disaster that effected a city very much. It was also an engineering story on how it happened, how it, you know, how it had failed. It was a huge investigation, and they did determine the cause. The cause was eventually tied to the way that the walkways were suspended, and the bolts and the rods that held the walkways. But it was also caused by the fact that they were having a dance contest. And walkways were at the fourth floor, the third floor and the second floor. And they began to vibrate. And the combination of the vibrations and the apparently less than adequate support, caused them to give way.