The Specialised Carriers & Rigging Associaiton has presented Jimmy Lomma, president of New York Crane, with a special award to recognise the work he did on 11 September 2001 and in the weeks and months that followed.

As reported at length in the November 2001 issue of Cranes Today, after the New York World Trade Center towers were demolished by a terrorist attack on 7/11, Lomma was on site from that very evening, with the first two of many cranes he would supply to the clear up operation. He was to remain on site for several weeks, living in his trailer that he parked round the corner so that he could be available 24 hours a day. He slept little and worked long, difficult hours over a four month period.

There were many other crane operators and riggers that also put in extraordinary efforts in repsonse to the disaster, but as Frank Bardonaro, general manager of Amquip, a competitor rental company, said: “Lomma was the lead person at the outset. He was the point man.” SC&RA president George Young made the award to Lomma at the associations crane and rigging workshop in Washington DC last month.

Young told ConnectingCranes: “The association thought it appropriate to pause for a minute to remember that day and to honour Jimmy for what he did in the aftermath of that terrible event.”