Just pictures, I'm speechless

[fholbert]

[fholbert]

http://www.dullesjetcenter.com/djc_facility.php

[fholbert]

Giving credit where credit is due these pictures were uploaded to the Flight Aware Forum by user Flight7

[fholbert]

Here is the bad boy that caused the problems.

[davegill]

Too much snow for the roof to handle?

[TimmyP]

It'd have to be a lot of snow to cause fracture rather than just excessive deflection or yielding, maybe 2-3 times the load after safety factors (so 3-4.5 times the actual load, I forget how the US design codes work). I know they've had a lot of snow there but if that was the cause on it's own, all the buildings would be doing this, not just this one - assuming that it was designed correctly of course!

Could be that it's exacerbated by a material defect or that they somehow weakened the top flange of the steel when they welded those stiffeners over the columns.

Whatever it is it's going to be an expensive week for somebody's insurance!

[flybymike]

At first glance it looks like a new parking method allowing additional room for more aircraft not to mention increased headroom.

[Paul_Sengupta]

In 1982 the roof of the pavillion at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff collapsed due to the snow.

Back in about '96, large and heavy hail brought down the roof of one of the hangars at Bartow in Florida. Actually, reading about it, 86mph winds didn't help...

The "softball sized hail" also damaged some of our aeroplanes...wing tips and tail tops were broken.

http://www.joesdiscoweathercentral.com/time/mar2303.htm

March 30, 1996 -- Afternoon -- evening -- Central Florida -- Severe Weather Outbreak -- Tornadoes were documented in Hernando, Sumter, Lake, Polk, and Brevard counties. In Brevard County, a waterspout /tornado touched down in Merritt Island and Cape Canaveral, tearing out windows and damaging roofs on six homes, destroying a small building on a used car lot, and damaging the roof of a night club and a dive shop. 25 other buildings in the area received minor damage. Windows were blown out of 30 vehicles. Damage estimates were near $500,000. Hail, most the size of baseballs, severely damaged the roofs, knocked out windows in nearly 600 homes, and severely damaged 3,000 vehicles in Lake Wales, Polk County. Softball size hail (4.50-inch) also occurred in Lake Wales, which set a new record as the largest documented hail for the state of Florida. Hail accumulated to a depth of one foot in Bartow. Golf ball size hail (1.75-inch) fell in Hillsborough, Lake, Orange, Seminole, Brevard, Osceola and Martin counties. An 86-mph wind gust at Bartow Municipal Airport caused window and roof damage to the FAA tower, severely damaged roofs and doors of two businesses at the airport, and overturned and demolished five mobile homes on wheels at a mobile home plant on airport property. Winds blew down trees in Chuluota, Seminole County, in Mulberry, Polk County, and damaged a van and injured one person in Ocoee, Orange County. Total property damage was estimated at $28 million dollars, with the storm producing the record size hail causing the majority of the damage at nearly $25 million dollars.

[TimmyP]

Soft-ball sized hail...wouldn't want to be out in that!

I wasn't saying that it wasn't the snow, just that there are probably other contributory factors (material, design etc.)

I thought it was a new way of parking at first glance too!

[Adam]

See Here

I undrstand that it may have contained :-
Global XRS #9177 N528JR owned by J.E. Robert Companies
Global XRS #9304 N89MX owned by Micro Strategy / Michael Saylor
Global Express #9037 N400GX owned by Michael Saylor / DC Global
Global Express #9052 N620K owned by Eastman Kodak
Gulfstream GV #618 N585JC owned by Hilton Hotels
Gulfstream GIV #1476 N59AP owned by Computer Sciences Corp. managed by Jet Aviation
Falcon 900EX #120 N106RW owned by Richard Wenzel managed by Jet Aviation
Falcon 2000EX #119 N62YC Owned by NII Holdings / Nextel

Inside you see

[Morley]

Tailwheel conversion firm goes bust.

[poetpilot]

Looks a bit like my bedroom when I was a kid and used to hang model aeroplanes from the ceiling at crazy angles.

[Dave Phillips]

I recollect being on exercise in Norway a few winters back - a gymnasium roof collapsed killing a few troops who were accommodated there.
If the Norwegians can't get their roof loading calculations right..............

[Rotorboater]

I hope they had contents insurance!

[Dave W]

It wasn't just one hangar - it was three.



Brief story from AOPA Online.