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r passing a standardized test. One week of study will give some people enough knowledge to pass a certification examination, and then they can jump into the cab of a crane. Imagine that a mercial airline pilot had the same training as a certified crane operator. How would you feel the next time you decided to fly? In California, it takes more hours of training to wield a pair of scissors in a hair salon than to operate potentially dangerous lifting machinery. How does this make sense? Riggers and signal persons also need standard training and testing to ensure safety under the hook. Employers usually allow any craft to signal a crane on a jobsite, despite best practices that require only qualified people do so. How is it then that uncertified and untrained people are allowed to signal and rig under the hook of a licensed or certified operator? Tower cranes are particularly risky as urban sites bee more congested, and the risk of a catastrophic event is very high during climbing operations. Yet most towercrane climbing crews are trained in a nontraditional manner, via secondhand knowledge that has been passed down over time. The problem with this type of handmedown knowledge is that it changes over the years, lea