KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A federal official said today a construction accident that collapsed a portion of the Hyatt Regency Hotel's atrium roof 20 months ago did not involve safety violations and likely had no relation to a skywalk disaster last week that killed 111 people.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration documents showed that a section of the hotel's east atrium roof -- above the restaurant area but not above where the three skywalks were built -- fell four stories into the lobby area on Oct. 14, 1979.
At the time, a spokesman of the Crown Center Redevelopment Corp., owner of the 40-story luxury hotel, told reporters a beam fell because of an 'installation problem.'
OSHA officials became aware of the accident, in which no one was injured, on Oct. 26, 1979 while investigating the death of a construction worker in a separate accident.
But OSHA spokesman Herschel Hansen said since the accident occurred during a weekend when no one was in the building and there were no injuries 'no one was fined.'
'No employees were involved in that accident. That section fell over the weekend. Just because it had occurred, we took pictures of it (and placed them in the OSHA file). There was some documentation on file, but no one was fined.
'I don't know that it's connected with the sky bridges' collapse. It was in a different part of the atrium,' he said.
The picture of the collapsed roof was found among OSHA documents made available under the federal Freedom of Information Act. They also showed that the general contractor for the Hyatt Regency, Eldridge and Son Construction Co., was fined $5,920 for 17 violations during the hotel's construction.
Several other firms received smaller fines for violations that endangered the safety of the employees working at the site.
'There is nothing extraordinary in the nature and number of violations on a job of that size,' Hansen said.
None of the violations involved defective construction materials.
Workers at the Hyatt today began removing the third and only remaining skywalk in the ornate lobby of the hotel -- an aerial walkway identical to two walkways which collapsed last week.
Mayor Richard Berkley has objected to the removal because it could hamper a multitude of investigations.
But Berkley said the city can do little to prevent the private company from taking out the skywalk.
James C. McClune, president of the Crown Center Redevelopment Corp., which owns the Hyatt hotel building, said the decision to take the skywalk out was made at the urging of experts who determined the walkway could be a safety hazard.
'We felt it was unacceptable to continue any condition that presented any possibility that the events of Friday night could be repeated in any degree,' McClune said in a prepared statement released today.
The third skywalk was not affected by last week's collapse and -- until today -- remained suspended from the ceiling.
In other developments, officials at the Hyatt Regency Hotel hinted it would reopen soon and the Internal Revenue Service reportedly was investigating alleged payoffs to city building inspectors during the hotel's construction.
'We are definitely planning on reopening, but we won't know when until the end of the week,' a Hyatt spokeswoman said Wednesday.
She said rescheduling of guests and conventions at other area hotels will be discontinued Aug. 15, but refused to confirm if that is the actual reopening date of the plush downtown hotel where 111 people were killed and 186 injured Friday in the collapse of two skywalks at a crowded tea dance.
The Kansas City Times reported Wednesday that the IRS is investigating reports that city building inspectors took money from foremen during construction of the $50 million, 40-story hotel.
The Times, in a copyright story, said 'one reliable source' had confirmed the IRS Criminal Investigation Division was probing reports that inspectors took the money and failed to report it as income.
George Warmuth, IRS investigations group manager, refused officially to confirm or deny any IRS investigation, but he acknowledged that he and another IRS agent were studying city records in conection with the Hyatt disaster -- copies of contracts, payments to subcontractors and general financial records.
Experts said they were no closer to announcing an official reason for the collapse of the modernistic skywalks onto a crowd gathered for the dance in the atrium lobby, but numerous theories were being advanced.
One dealt with the way the two 65,000-pound bridges were anchored to side walls and some engineers blamed a change in suspension rod design for the walk's collapse.
Mayor Richard Berkley sent a letter Wednesday to the National Bureau of Standards officially requesting it to investigate the cause of the collapse.
Hyatt, the hotel's operator, and the Crown Center Redevelopment Corp., its owner, have so far been hit with six lawsuits asking for a total of more than $200 million.
The sixth suit filed on behalf of the four children of William and Betty McLane of Prairie Village, Kan., who were killed in the mishap, seeks a total of $7 million in damages and it names 12 defendants, including the city of Kansas City.
James McClune, president of the Crown Center Corp., said evidence of the collapse was being preserved and 'will be available for inspection by persons having a legitimate reason to see it.'
The Hyatt Regency sales and public relations offices located steps away from the devastated lobby hummed with activity Wednesday.
A hundred of the more than 1,000 employees of the hotel were on the job churning out news releases, rescheduling convention groups and even taking reservations. Some of the kitchen and housekeeping employees are also working, the Hyatt spokeswoman said.
