# Has anyone ever been killed by a falling piano or anvil? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 12, 2013, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484 "2013-04-12T09:16:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2013, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/21 "2013-04-19T17:44:20Z")
nm. ninja’d. ---
**Author:** ![chris76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@chris76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chris76)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/22 "2013-04-28T01:08:54Z")
What about falling air conditioners from high-rises? I saw a “Seinfeld” where Kramer looses one through an open window. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/23 "2013-04-28T01:12:20Z")
> [@chris76](#): > > What about falling air conditioners from high-rises? I saw a “Seinfeld” where Kramer looses one through an open window. Is there anyone who doesn’t know that an air conditioner _ **will** _ fall out the window unless actively prevented from doing so? This isn’t Murphy’s Law, it’s Murphy’s Money Back Guarantee. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/24 "2013-04-28T02:02:04Z")
Okay, I’ll be the one to mention the old\* joke about a piano being accidentally dropped into a pit, the crash at the bottom being the sound of a flat miner. - I heard this groaner 40 years ago, and it was probably already ancient. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/25 "2013-04-28T20:25:31Z")
**Cecil** will be posting an update to this column in 2 weeks. One of the Teeming Millions sent in several good news reports which validate the actual tropes. Una, For the Straight Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/26 "2013-04-28T21:51:03Z")
> [@chris76](#): > > What about falling air conditioners from high-rises? I saw a “Seinfeld” where Kramer looses one through an open window. This is one of the cases where it is unclear whether the air conditioner falls accidentally (i.e. Kramer loses it), or whether it was let go on purpose (i.e. Kramer looses it). ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/27 "2013-04-28T23:08:46Z")
If you look at really old death records, like from the 1700s, it may list something called “Planet Struck.” I was telling someone about this and wondered what it might be, and he said, “The person probably jumped off a tall building.” 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/28 "2013-04-30T19:13:10Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > If you look at really old death records, like from the 1700s, it may list something called “Planet Struck.” My guess would be “afflicted in some mysterious way attributed to astrology,” such as fever or madness. ---
**Author:** ![sittininlab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/54ee81/32.png) [@sittininlab](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sittininlab)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/29 "2013-05-02T16:48:45Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > I agree with you that his surname had some irony in view of his demise. However, he was not named ironically. No, he was not named ironically. He was named Keys. ---
**Author:** ![kibitzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc8723/32.png) [@kibitzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kibitzer)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/30 "2013-05-13T20:18:49Z")
…but I once dropped a cast iron object weighing about a ton from a height of over 100ft, narrowly missing a group of people below. And on another occasion I found myself clinging to a ladder in an 8’x8’ vertical shaft 150’ deep, while half a dozen timbers the size of railroad ties bounced by, carroming off the walls all around me. All of this happened years ago when I was a college student, working for the summer as a laborer 3200 ft underground in the Homestake Gold Mine in my home town in South Dakota. The cast iron object was a “slusher motor” (don’t ask) – essentially a very large compressed air motor – that my coworker and I were lowering down a shaft to the miners below. Apparently, there are two ways to hoist a very heavy object with a winch – the right way and the wrong way. We did it the wrong way, the winch cable came unhooked, and the rest is history. Luckily, the miners weren’t directly below us when the slusher motor hit (and went straight through) the timber floor of the shaft with the force of a tactical nuclear weapon. I think it was an Acme slusher motor. What goes around (or down!) comes around, as I learned when a different coworker made the same mistake with a load of timbers – with me in the Wile E. Coyote position. These were learning experiences. I now work in a job where the greatest danger of being crushed comes from the towering piles of paper on my desk. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/31 "2013-05-13T21:23:42Z")
I was hanging out with a German buddy of mine as he transferred some of his training videos onto DVD and one of the helicopters dropped a 5 ton training weight onto the edge of the piste, effectively cratering it. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/32 "2013-05-14T16:24:18Z")
Not a lot of articles online about this, but Arkansas Nuclear One had a non-nuclear accident on or around march 30, 2013, in which part of a generator was dropped a significant distance. A “stator,” the part of an electrical generator that remains stationary while the “rotor” rotates, was being lifted by crane. This object weighed…_a lot_; the news cites below say 500 tons, but I have seen estimates of **700 tons** from sources I consider more reliable. The object fell about 50 feet or a little more. This was _not_ a small accident. One person was killed and 8 hospitalized. I do not know if the object fell on the person who died or if some other mechanic was involved – there was a LOT of energy released in that accident. [http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/ElectricPower/21894074](http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/ElectricPower/21894074) [http://enformable.com/2013/05/healthy-discussion-of-the-arkansas-nuclear-one-accident/](http://enformable.com/2013/05/healthy-discussion-of-the-arkansas-nuclear-one-accident/) ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2013, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/33 "2013-05-15T11:05:48Z")
MOD NOTE: **kibitzer** , I’ve merged your thread into an existing thread on falling pianos &c. just to try to keep everything in one spot. No problem, just sort of house-cleaning in hopes that it will be spring. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/34 "2013-05-18T09:12:47Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > That will be of little comfort to the widow Keys and the little Keys. Well, I am sure they were sad, but they were after all minor Keys. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2013, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/35 "2013-05-18T11:50:29Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > You’re confusing the past participle in its guise as a “verbal adjective” – i.e., just describing something’s state of being – with its variant guise as a “statement of an event having taken place” – i.e., reference to a specific action. > > The difference is the basis for the old joke: “She was turned on by the television, and vice-versa.” Perhaps, but only because of clumsy wording. Try this on for size: “A man with the ironic surname Keys…” And you weren’t the only one making a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2013, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/36 "2013-05-20T14:32:20Z")
As if the NYC police didn’t have enough to worry about on 9/11, there were dangers of the people jumping from the WTC hitting people on the ground. I know someone whose daughter was killed when a suicide jumper landed on her. Not Funny. ---
**Author:** ![Hagen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/45deac/32.png) [@Hagen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hagen)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/37 "2013-05-26T12:45:00Z")
Was looking at holiday pics of Amsterdam when I thought of this thread. How many cases in the Netherlands? Surely with all the hoisting up through windows this has got to be quite common (but piano falling standards). Cheers Luke ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/38 "2013-05-26T17:26:16Z")
The fatality rate has dropped dramatically since the invention of tiny umbrellas. ---
**Author:** ![Hagen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/45deac/32.png) [@Hagen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hagen)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2013, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/39 "2013-06-08T05:02:17Z")
Unfortunately it’s been tempered by a sudden increase in fatalities associated with people jumping off roofs with umbrellas. ---
**Author:** ![mikealmci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bbe5ce/32.png) [@mikealmci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikealmci)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2013, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484/40 "2013-06-10T05:59:41Z")
I found this very interesting as I was struck by a falling piano when I was 7 years old. I knew I couldn’t have been the only one… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-anyone-ever-been-killed-by-a-falling-piano-or-anvil/655484.md?page=3)