As was pointed out in the comments of that article, even had the rope lock not failed after the dowel snapped that was twisted into the purchase line, the next step was for someone to remove that dowel, open the rope lock, and start muscling around a seriously out-of-weight arbor. A couple guys hopping on that purchase line would've either had the flesh burned off the palms of their hands or they would have been sent sailing into the air.
There were supposed to be hand lines on the batten for other deck hands to help with the weight. Something I've done before and hate doing it every time. To me it is a bad design flaw in the set when you have to do things like that to get it in the air. I have some large sets that fly and really wish more theaters had a mid rail where you can load some of the weight when it's lying on the ground and more when it stands up but it's not enough to fly out yet. With a large full stage set peice it can easily be #600 or so and that is WAY TOO MUCH weight for a counter balance system to be out of balance. Even half that is still too much but at least the line won't be wanting to get in balance so quickly, compared to full weight. For touring shows that have set peices that are too large to put on until the pipe is in the air, then use a chain hoist from the grid.
I have toured through that theater several times and know all the crew there very well. Good space, great people.
Kenneth Pogin
Production / Tour Manager
Minnesota Ballet