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Taking The Emergency Exit From A Wind Turbine
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- Published on May 2, 2021 veröffentlicht
- Wind turbines have emergency exits, but they might not be for the reason you think. • Thanks to Octopus Energy: octopus.energy/octopus-fan-club/ (This video isn't sponsored, but obviously they did let me go up their wind turbine.)
Drone camera: Tom Francone
Edited by Michelle Martin (@mrsmmartin)
Thanks very much to all the team at Octopus Energy and EWT!
Filmed safely: www.tomscott.com/safe/
I'm at tomscott.com
on Twitter at tomscott
on Facebook at tomscott
and on Instagram as tomscottgo
I couldn't find a way to fit this into the video, but rather wonderfully, this turbine is called Octopus Energy's "#1 Fan". Thanks to all the team there, and the rope access team at EWT. This wasn't sponsored, and Octopus had no control over the final video, but obviously they did let me go up their conveniently-branded wind turbine in an effort to boost their brand. (If any other companies would like to show me around their conveniently-branded spectacular facilities, they should definitely get in touch...!)
This was pinned 2 days ago tf
@BlueMarvel yea do you not know how yt works?
Hi
hi tom
To this day Tom is still whispering to himself “I’ve got two wires”
From a
right?!
It isn't even 20 mins to upload..😂
this ^
8 minutes later tom is still saying this
Tom Scott knows precisely the content his audience wants.
@Brabant hes the only big youtuber i have respect for
@ThatXoneXguy Mr. Beast is good.
@Maksim Yarmoliuk • 53 years ago am
@Maksim Yarmoliuk • 53 years ago coryxkenshin also has quite a wholesome community
he can mind read us
shout out that turbine worker who was an absolute DUDE the whole time, made me want to work on turbines
It pays well
Replace DUDE with CHAD
I work on them and most of the people are like that guy, it's the chillest job
@Patrick Reilly do they pay you good
@Saed Noor wind turbine workers are notoriously well paid. it's an extremely fast growing and lucrative business. you'll make a mint if you work in it
One thing I really appreciate about you, Tom, is that you get to the point. You don’t add loads of nonsense or uninteresting fluff to your videos just to get them to the 10 minute mark. You actually value quality over quantity.
Right? One of his most interesting videos imo, is not even 3 minutes long.
I thought the 10 minute rule for video monetization was removed a long time ago, I could be wrong though.
Yep. Checked out his over videos & I'm subscribed. So glad I cut my cable teevee years ago. What a waste of idiotic programming from these stiff, old & clueless teevee executives. In a few more decades, cable teevee will go the way of the teevee antenna.
When the "teevee generation" of tens of millions of mindless soap opera, sit com, "tv drama", & "hollywood award" ceremony watching boomers eventually bites the dust, cable will become like the antenna & unlike the antenna which costs little to produce, the cable companies will collapse & bite the dust as well!
@PacificOcean na its still active
Most Americans couldn't do this job. They wouldn't even fit up that ladder.
"I've got two wires on me I've got two wires on me I've got two wires on me" hahahahaha love it
Whats so funny
@Tsar Bomba him trying to be rational in the moment while every cell of his body probably screamed "DONT DO THAT" totally relatable to me :D
Hi wren
*SNAP* I've got one wire on me... I've got one wire on me....
He'd be a terrible undercover cop
Worker: "I think I've twisted my ankle! I can't get down!"
Emergency Services: "Better use the emergency exit, then."
Worker: "Actually, my ankle isn't too bad. In fact, the pain is gone already. Hey, who's up for a game of football when I get down?"
Leaning back on that two rope system 50 meters in the air is probably one of the hardest things to watch, can’t imagine how you did that in person.
I've actually done that. Not from a wind turbine, but in basic training back when I joined the U.S. Army. You have to learn how to rappel down a 40ft wall. It's scary stuff if you've never done anything like that before.
@Gogeta70 I remember seeing a video of soldiers training and they showed that part and how one of those trainees froze up. Deffenite hard step to get into the mindset of trusting the equipment to get you down safely.
when I did waterfall rappelling it was the same thing. Even worse because you have all the powerful water coming on your side and to walk down you have to do your steps on slippery wet rocks. I froze and couldn't move at some point and somehow I found a hole behind the waterfall where I went inside sat down and chill for a bit, hoping the guys would understand to come and rescue as i wasn't going anywhere. Then I remembered this was a jungle and there could be snakes on that hole. I left the hole and descent faster than the water itself 😂
@Rafael Santos damn
I once did ziplining 50 feet above the ground, in the mountains. The line moved very slowly because the people ahead would freeze up when it was their turn. The workers had to convince them to go, or get off the ramp. Workers weren't allowed to push them (I wish they were allowed to). It was mainly women who were the cowardly slowpokes. Next time, don't go ziplining if there are many women ahead of you... it'll take forever
Tom is officially an adrenaline junkie, if the last 30 times didn't prove it.
What I always love about toms videos about different fields is that the people in them always seem so genuine and happy with their jobs and overall just so eager to talk about it and help Tom understand it better
If you're a company trying to get some low-cost PR by inviting Clip-Share personalities to visit your facilities, will you send a happy and eager person or a sad and uninterested person to talk with them?
I can't even begin to imagine the amount of fear I wold have descending.
I nearly had a panic attack just watching
@Runstar Homer haahahahha
If you already were an acrophobic then you still would be after this experience!
I couldn’t describe the fear I’d have going _up!_
Someone would have to save me from the parking lot.
When they say the emergency services won't climb a wind turbine, that isn't completely true. In most cases because of these systems we don't need to. However in the event it is needed we have specialised teams, the Hazardous Area Response Team, who are trained in accessing these kinds of areas and rescuing patients from similar awkward locations.
Tom Scott is going for the platinum trophy in the game of life. Every quest, every minigame, full map exploration.
yes
100% glitchless
And he's Lets Playing it all
😂
i wonder what the world record is for that category
That's a hard pass from me. That one moment where Tom was panicking about trusting the ropes, that would've been me from the very beginning. Acrophobia ruins a lot of things. Even carnival rides give me intense vertigo.
make baby steps my friend you wont regret it, trust me
@Knaxel true! I was thinking about Tom’s descend and how nerve wracking it must be to go fully horizontal like that, but I thought about when I do indoor rock wall climbing, it’s nearly the same thing
am i the only one whos like; berlin television tower, tall roller coasters and flying in a plane? no problem. stading on a 3 steps ladder? nearly panicking
You aren't the only one going: Nope nope nope.... NOPE!
@K3v1n dawg I've been on a plane, ridden a lot of roller coasters and thrill rides and I absolutely refuse to climb ladders. They're Shakey and aren't nailed to the floor and just ugh.
and now imagine that this is actually a tiny turbine by modern standards, now they are easily 3 times as high
I gotta say my favourite thing about all these types of videos are finding out about the cool intelligent people doing a job so well you don't even need to know it exists. Like logically you know there must be people to repair turbines, but you don't think of all the extra technicalities involved and you don't need to thanks to these fantastic people on the ground doing the invisible jobs.
this idea reminded me of the two dutch men in Ooltgensplaat that were last seen hugging on a burning wind turbine. both didn't survive. one jumped and one burned to death.
I remember that. Very sad.
Same. The fire would have burned the ropes I assume.
@Wolf actually no, they use fireproof ropes literally for the Ooltgensplaat disaster
@rsplatpc nice! I'm glad to hear that. I wish they had them available. That whole disaster was heartbreaking.
@rsplatpc is fireproof rope not just steel cables like these? if it is in contact with flames enough for that to matter, how do you descend it?
Having done something very similar to drop down a wall the size of 3 floor building, I'm impressed by Tom's quick commitment to what is literally walking backwards off the edge of a tower. It's not easy, even when you're not afraid of heights!
Tom's the only guy some random energy company's gonna ask "hey, wanna climb our wind turbine"
@A Lo sound about right
props to tom for being able to narrate whilst descending. i can't even imagine having to do several takes of that. 😂
If he was lucky, he only had to do one take :P
The fact he had to narrate over parts says he did it in one take...
For some reason it never occurred to me that Wind Turbines had doors and had interiors. I thought they were maintained from the outside.
Tom, you are making the most of your life. You have a true adventurer's spirit. Thank you for taking us on your adventures. From the longest echo in the world, to a stone-turning witches cave, to the shortest ferry ride in the world, and everything else in between, thank you.
Im getting sweaty hands and elevated heartrate by just watching this video. good work on doing this, and also to the team that helped you.
Wow! This reminded me of when I was rock climbing with an expert who had to get me to "trust the rope". It is so counter-intuitive to the way my brain is wired, which is to hold on for dear life and not let go! We used a second person called a Belayer while these guys use the automatic device that allows ascent while locking up if there is a fall. I found this very informative and fascinating.
This reminded me of rock climbing as a kid too :)
Honestly, Tom’s video ideas are getting more and more niche, yet still getting more and more fascinating
probably generated by an AI
From the
From the
The more niche, the more interesting, because they get to be more specific videos. Tom gets to take twice as deep a dive in the normal timeframe into a topic that gets more fascinating the deeper you dive.
I think that's the trick. Tom has the passion to make almost everything interesting, why waste it on some mainstream topic, that has been covered multiple times already.
Love it! The training and professionalism of EWT fully evident - great job to those guys!
That fall arrest system when you’re climbing up it sounds similar to auto-belay systems in indoor rock climbing
That’s what I thought too
Lots of people who do work at hight jobs are also into climbing.
GREAT JOB TOM! You made it look easy going over the threshold like that! Leaning back into your harness toward certain death, and trusting gear only shown to you moments prior, takes immense strength! What a phenomenal video! 👍🏼
Hi Tom, the answer to your question of "would emergency services climb the turbine" is probably YES. each ambulance service has a team called "HART" which stands for "Hazardous Area Response Team". They are trained for a variety of different scenarios, including rescue from water, enclosed spaces, and (in this situation) working at height. to confirm this, it may be worth putting in a FOI request to the various trusts to verify
I'm so terrified of heights !! Just watching him go down had my heart beating so fast.
For those that do maintenance on air turbines, I give it to you all, that takes guts and bravery.
If you didn't have a heart attack, use the emergency exit to get one.
Good one!
Funny
😂 I actually laughed out loud there
😂😂😂
Nice! 😄🤣
imagine if a breeze picks up while you're descending and you start to swing back and forth
Shoutout to the cameraman to be capable of filming without any ropes attached to him
They built a bunch of wind farms around my city, now it is so much more windy here. It was already windy, no idea why they thought we needed a bunch of huge fans!
Once again living vicariously through Tom Scott
wow, you're brave, I couldn't even imagine myself climbing up 10 metres from the ground
Tom is taking us on a tour of literally everything there is in every country
Hi doggo
Di hoggo
Oggod Ih
I'm down for that. If anyone can make utterly mundane sounding topics interesting, it's Tom.
Video games
As a wind tech, huge props for getting the audio that clear inside the tower despite the reverb. I can barely understand what the guy next to me is saying half the time in person.
yep...true
You don't see that everyday! Amazing. Thanks Tom and the crew. I've drove by turbines often and wonder what it's like in there.
That pop out of the exit was fascinating apart from the sharp pain in my legs from my fear of heights
I think the interior of the structure, especially the column upon which the turbine sits, is quite fascinating!
The echo inside the tower sections is awesome, I usually climb with a Bluetooth speaker going and it makes the music sound awesome
Right at 3:43 is where I would have started shaking uncontrollably and regretting every life choice I made to reach that point
Fun fact: Tom Scott has never taken the ladder down a wind turbine.
Now my favorite random fun fact.
Neither have i
he’s taken the ladder up once, but never down.
Neither have i
When you're a skydiver you often think to yourself how few airplanes you have actually landed with but how many you've actually taken off with.
i am proud of you Tom! I know you are afraid of heights
this was really cool to see and you've got some balls for doing it but I also wouldve liked to see how the guys repair the blades!
This has been years ago now, but husbands cousin fell off of one of these things and that story just made these that much more terrifying to me.
When imagining working on turbines it was always scary for me because you know giant pole with giant blades. To see its so safe is reassuring.
My anxiety level when he started stepping out on the hub to descend was at about 1000%
"It will break."
Wait...that's bad.
"It's a braking system."
Oh, that's good.
“The braking system will break”
“That’s bad.”
@Alex But it comes with a frozen yogurt, I call frogurt
Breaking Bad?
But the braking system is cursed.
Oh, that's bad.
as always i feel like im a bit more informed after every one of your videos! thanks for following the facts so we dont have to!
I went to Kentucky for Spring Break and I went repelling. Very similar feeling as to Tom. I had to keep telling myself to trust the process and that I was under the guidance of trained professionals. Started with the 50ft wall and finished with the 150ft wall. I was quite happy.
I remember doing that from a training tower when I worked for (defunct) Clipper Windpower. The one you used is sloooooooww compared to what I used, though I am sure the safety technology has improved greatly from 2008.
I wish I had the chill energy this dude Ben has.
Tom Scott is an absolute CHAD! Bravo. I didn't know just how fearless Tom was. Now I know!
“I’ve got two wires on me” is the politest way Tom could keep himself from soiling his trousers lmao
Can’t get demonetised now
soiling his trousers lmao
I've rappelled once or twice, and it truly is nerve wracking. I had to go down maybe a 3 meter wall-- nothing big enough that I'd die if I hit the ground, but certainly it would hurt-- and my brain wouldn't stop telling me about how it was going to end. It's so darned difficult to put your faith in someone and something other than yourself
They didn’t show the soiled trou...
@DarthTofu2 My old high school's gym has a climbing wall with top rope, probably about 7-8 meters and we actually used that in PE. We paired up and took turns climbing and belaying. We also made a trip to an indoor climbing center with taller walls. Retroactively, I'm a bit baffled how casually we were putting our lives literally in each other's hands, but I'm also positively reminded how responsible everyone was behaving.
Good to see safety has improved. Some years ago I read how there was fire and two guys caught at the top were forced to jump to their deaths to escape the heat. Sad.
The inside of the turbine looks very clean and nice. I do wish the outside had little sticks/bars you could hold onto, so you had a way of not getting a heart attack abseiling.
That Demonstration is so Totally Right On!
Thank you and my Grandchildren thank you as well ❤️
I love how 'I have two wires' just becomes your calming-mantra immediately hahah
i really love that there are exit signs within the climbing tube
Tom: I've got two wires on me.
Tom's brain: No, you're on your feet. If you lean back you'll fall.
Tom: I've got two wires on me.
Tom's brain: Don't let go you're gonna die!
Tom: I've got two wires on me.
Tom's brain: Oh I get it, we're good.
Lmfao
If you've never been abseiling that initial lean back and trust your legs/the rope is definitely the most scary part
Ķévïņ Bŕëēmànşhow about no
I'M A STICK!
I remember my middle school had a short rock climbing unit for gym. It was all completely voluntary, you didn't get graded or extra credit if you did it. They brought in an "expert", just a good friend of the teacher. On the last day we practiced rapelling off our school bleachers. They were just over 15' high. I will never forget how nerve-wracking it was to step off the edge backwards and that was only 15' I can only imagine how terrifying it is at 50 meters
We manufacture these emergency descent systems here in India for a German company, and gets installed in all these wind turbines. It’s got an internal gearing and brake system which works on centripetal force and slows you down if you go faster than a set velocity. Quite clever little mechanism, but has to be made precisely, somebody’s life depends on it. Happy to see this video!
P. S there is also a high speed electric chain hoist in the nacelle of the wind turbine which is used to lift and lower tools and equipment. We also manufacture the chain hoist for many wind turbine OEMs, also for EWT :)
as a person that is afraid of heights this watching them point the camera down the ladder gives me goosebumps
I used to climb radio towers for a living but I had the opportunity to climb one of the bigger turbines once, the feeling of being outside on that wet curved surface at the top was way more unnerving than hanging off any piece of angle iron I've hung from my finger tips on.
Ok Tom, it's amazing you've had these opportunities that most of us will never have a chance of experiencing. But I can safely say, this is not one of those experiences which I want to try.
The eternal conflict between "That took a decade off my life just watching it" and "I would plonk down serious money to be allowed to do that"
While doing it off of a wind turbine specifically is probably not goint to happen there are loads of places you can go absailing.
This feels a bit like a recruiting video for the job - go get paid to do it!
I got vertigo just watching you step out and looking around 😅 I’d have definitely needed to be unconscious to start the descent! 😂
I just built a mock up of one of these units in a classroom for Pinnacle Career Institute in Kansas City Missouri. It is specifically to teach the rescue procedures and climbing the correct way with all thier rigging. I am super proud to help and be a part of this. Thanks for the pov perspective as I have not been lucky enough to get up inside one yet ! Hahahha.. Awesome...
Thanks for binding smile and safety together. Well done 👏🏻
Definitely something they can charge me for the opportunity to do. I still remember climbing the inside of very large containment facility outside of Ballston Spa NY. That was much less safe as we had no safety gear and zero authority to be there. But the feeling and the view was amazing.
Someone really needs to make a compilation of Tom saying "I got an email...[something probably very crazy]"
It's a good opener. Ties the fantastic to the everyday, and also suggests to other people with neat stuff that they can just reach out.
@adamsbja yep, also works as a way to show the video wasn't sponsored
Exactly!
It's also rare for him, to GET emails-
Reminds me of top gear and Clarkson's "I went on the Internet and found this"
When I went up a wind turbine as a teenager there where no ropes or safety, we just had gloves to not slip that easy.
Also it was a lot wider and higher, I remember how scary it was hanging on a ladder 30m over a steel plate.
As someone who's really afraid of heights, I think this is so cool!
I've been working in the wind industry for the past five years. I always say the hardest part of my job is the climb on my own power, other than that, it's an amazing job. I always have to remind myself when I'm out of breath climbing 80 and 100 meter towers, that I'm getting paid to do some cardio, while other people pay to get their cardio workout.
That space inside looks so claustrophobic yet so cozy at the same time.
Are all wind turbines equipped with this emergency route? Because that would actually help a lot with a story I'm writing...
The 2 things I learned from this video :
1- The view at the top is amazing
2- He's got two wires on him
+
the view from the top is worth trespassing for
3- Turbines now have an emergency exit due to a fire that killed two repairman, and trapped them at the top.
@J S I was surprised they didn't mention the risk of fire. Sounded like this emergency exit is only meant for one person, meaning this wouldn't even solve that issue.
Climbing a ladder straight up with no tea shop on the way, definitely for the fittest of us.
I rarely get that much of an adrenaline rush watching someone else do that
Mad props to the people who do maintenance involving heights….would have a heart attack if it was me up there
Thank you for that. I used to be an electrician when I was healthy and was always fascinated with turbines. Your video answered a lot of my questions. Thanks again!!
I seemed to have developed a strange fear of other people being up high. I am not afraid of heights. I live six stories up and can sit in an open window with no railing. Watching this totally creeped me out.
Ah yes, the Fight, flight, or "I've got two wires on me" response.
This is so underrated! 😢
People often forget that there is a third “F” and in situations like these it is more than likely the response we’d expect - FREEZE !
George - Good point. I’d not considered that one but I concur that it belongs in the list.
George I assume the other two are more recognized due to predators not caring to much about fawn or freeze, the other two also have a quicker and more direct result with both animals and humans
Great episode Tom! Worst part of abseiling... letting go. Defining moment!
I always wondered what the inside of these look like. You have serious balls to go down from the top like that. My hands were sweating big time from watching this video
I like how when you're climbing the ladder there is a regular Exit sign pointing downwards.
If Tom got an e-mail, 99% it's about him wanting to learn to fly.
Couldn’t help but laugh when you were climbing the ladder and behind you was an emergency exit sign pointing down. I mean like, really???
As always, fascinating vids.
My mother told me: "Never meet with strangers from the internet who ask you if you want to come to their wind turbine!", and then there's Tom Scott.
Your mother was strangely specific.
@Twisted Tachyon Still good advice. Then again, Tom's a trained professional
@Twisted Tachyon Instructions unclear, something caught in a 500kW wind turbine.
I love the design of this wind turbine. The generator housing is not as boxy as usual.
These things are terribly huge...
Tom has guts 👊
The climb inside looked awesome and no danger of slipping. (former electrician who has seen some crazy stuff on the jobsite and taken a "magic ladder ride" where the bottom of a 30' ladder must have gotten scared by the building and took off away from it 😆). Seeing that ring of neodymium magnets I could only imagine how strong they must be since a few little ones can pinch a finger but when they showed that view from 50 meters up? My butt is still clinched!! 😆 😆 Going down the " 2 wires " would be easy, slow moving from top to bottom. Where was the 75 kph winds? The hail? At least a lightning storm.
Thank you for doing this so that we have something new to learn and see 🙏
I remember i once went around what i can only describe as a weird obsicle course suspended in the air (and i cannot spell)
i do not know how high up off the ground it was, but one thing i do remember is it reminded me i have a fear of heights
a few times i even needed a bit of encouragement to get to the end (and i did not go round a second time, everyone else went round at least twice)
there was a track thing overhead which each persons safety harness was attached to (and the person supervising was attached to a seperate track)
The "I've got two wires!" bit really hit me because it really seemed like it was just Tom thinking aloud, convincing himself this very unsafe-seeming thing was in fact perfectly safe.
I caught that too. That was genuine self-talk we witnessed.
It's letting go that is the problem. Your brain just doesn't want to be convinced to do it. The moment your body wegiht is acttually supported entierly by a harness, 90% of anxiety goes away. Unless you're reylly overthinking and/or have severe agoraphobia that is.
I think it seemed like that because it's literally what was happening. Definitely awesome, because I'd be too scared to even convince myself it was safe. 😂
@Mancub_WWA well your brain is thinking that you're just falling backwards from a very high point and doing everything it can to stop you from letting go.
@Mancub_WWA the fear of heights is Acrophobia, Agoraphobia is fear of going out into situations that may cause anxiety. Close in both spelling and in this situation meaning, so I'll let it slide this time😜
Thank you Sir. I live near 127 of these disgusting machines. Always wondered how the emergency exist worked.
Also the fact that it is just a ladder that you have climb hundreds of feet straight up is brutal
I just got hired as a wind turbine tech in the US and this was very informative. Thank you
My stomach turned when you let go of the ladder 😂 love it
I'm surprised you didn't mention the two dutch turbine workers who died due to a fire and no way to descend from the outside. I think this was back in 2013 in Ooltgensplaat I think.
My concern with what I saw here is that if the turbine were to catch fire, would the rope device and or tie off be outside or far enough from the main compartment to be accessible so they could escape?
Heart breaking to see the video of the turbine workers who lost their lives, one burned to death and the other jumped to his death rather than die in the fire. You can see them hug each other before the end....