Falling, gathering velocity, cables whistling.
In relative silence the tower fell, its descent punctuated only by onlookers’ comments.
“Cayo mal . . . cayo mal.” (It fell badly . . . it fell down wrong.”)
The transmission lines to a nearby antenna array were ripped down by the tower, but workers quickly repaired those lines for the next day's radio programming.
In 15 seconds it was over as the tower cut through the sky and crashed to the ground. Horizontal, mangled and bent, it belied the hundreds of man-hours invested decades earlier. At 416 feet tall, it had served as HCJB Global Voice’s tallest at the international transmitter site in Ecuador, and also the highest tower supporting the parabolic screen behind the steerable antenna.
Loud was the silence in the Andean pasture in a valley near Quito where the tower now lay on the grass. Loud also had been the signals emanating from its antenna, sending a powerful radio voice that proclaimed refuge, security and strength in Jesus Christ to people in distant locations: the Middle East, Japan, and the former U.S.S.R to name a few.
(Please see the full story at this blog site.)
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