From KMBC’s Archives: Hyatt Skywalk disaster one of worst tragedies in Kansas City history

Wednesday marks the 38th anniversary of one of the worst tragedies in Kansas City history – the Hyatt Skywalk disaster. More than 2,000 people were attending a tea dance at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on July 17, 1981, when the lobby's skywalks collapsed, killing 114 people.The rescue operation lasted nearly 24 hours and the recovery effort took weeks, but the scars and heartbreak on our great city last to this day.This is the original video from a special report by KMBC 9 News following the tragedy.Thirty-eight years later, the Hyatt Skywalk tragedy remains one of the nation's worst structural failure disasters.It triggered multimillion-dollar lawsuits, taught engineering schools a terrible lesson about design flaws and marked a beginning point nationally for treating the psychological scars of rescue workers.

Wednesday marks the 38th anniversary of one of the worst tragedies in Kansas City history – the Hyatt Skywalk disaster.

More than 2,000 people were attending a tea dance at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on July 17, 1981, when the lobby's skywalks collapsed, killing 114 people.

The rescue operation lasted nearly 24 hours and the recovery effort took weeks, but the scars and heartbreak on our great city last to this day.

This is the original video from a special report by KMBC 9 News following the tragedy.

Thirty-eight years later, the Hyatt Skywalk tragedy remains one of the nation's worst structural failure disasters.

It triggered multimillion-dollar lawsuits, taught engineering schools a terrible lesson about design flaws and marked a beginning point nationally for treating the psychological scars of rescue workers.