A construction crane collapsed Friday on New York's Upper East Side, smashing into a 23-story apartment building as it fell to the ground, killing two construction workers and seriously injuring another who was a pedestrian.

The two men who died were the crane’s operator Ramadan Kurtas, 27, and Donald Leo, 30. One body was brought out of the rubble, placed on a gurney and covered in a white sheet. A construction worker knelt over the stretcher, gently stroking the sheet.

City building department records show that inspectors stopped crane work twice last month. One of which was for unsafe operation and lack of proper permits.

Investigation reveals that the top part of the crane snapped off and fell against the building around 8 a.m. Witnesses described a loud boom, then a cloud of smoke and debris.

A police spokesman said the injured workers were in serious condition at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. One was being treated for a chest wound, the other for cardiac arrest.

The general contractor on the project is Leon D. DeMatteis Construction Corp. of Elmont on Long Island. Spokesman Don Miller said Friday that Sorbara Construction, a subcontractor, was in charge of operating the crane. A woman who answered the telephone at Sorbara Friday said no one was available to comment.

Cranes at the site had generated several complaints in the neighborhood, including reports that safety barriers were breached and heavy loads passed over the heads of pedestrians, according to city building department records. Inspectors found that most of the concerns were unwarranted, but they did temporarily order one crane at the site to stop all work on April 23.

Building Department records also said officials halted work after a crane on the site failed a “load test” on April 22. The crane passed a second test, however, the next day, and no violation was issued.

On March 15 about 2 miles to the south of  Friday’s incident, contractors building a 46-story condominium near the United Nations were trying to lengthen a crane when a steel support broke, killing seven people. A four-story town house was demolished and several other buildings were damaged.

A buildings inspector had found the crane to be safe a day before the collapse; another inspector resigned after his arrest on charges of lying earlier about inspecting the same crane.

In April, the city's buildings commissioner resigned, under fire over a rising number of deadly construction accidents that have left more than 26 construction workers dead in the past year.

Since then, the city has added extra inspections at building sites and required that its staff be on hand whenever the towering cranes were raised higher, a process known as a jump. Those procedures are still being revised.

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