[Barnes Wallis]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18681294

[rosskesava]

Quote from the article:

.....The spokesman for the Shard said: "The wind got up a bit more than we were anticipating and the window cleaner was brought down to ground level......

Convective weather and a windy day = strong gusts of winds. It's basic meteorology and having done roped access work, I find it incredible that anyone would even think of using a cradle at that height on a day like today.

I found the youtube clip as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UzTgVoRqoY

[Barnes Wallis]

Nice find.

I wonder who the company were that allowed this to happen?

[Llaaww]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQv1ZGXaIro&feature=related

check out the dude on the left, he is just sitting there.

[Tom White]

I'm pretty certain those guys won't be 'window cleaners'; they'll be abseilers who do a variety of tasks while dangling off a rope; including window cleaning.

We had a squad of them here a few years back abseiling from railway embankments clearing weeds 'n' stuff and one of them told me he'd recently been on some window cleaning job, hanging from a rope.

[Blue Frog Systems]

Tosh is right - i used to work with a guy who's son was an abseiler and he did everything from changing bulbs, window cleaning, filming for surveys, gardening .... all from a rope

[rosskesava]

I used to do quite a bit of picture taking of cladding as well as window cleaning. Also on a few occasions I had a camera stuck on my helmet and a 2 way radio for structural inspections but generally, 95% of the time it was just window cleaning.

Looking at that lot doing the Shard..... drool drool.... imagine the view?