re: Massive crane collapses in downtown Manhattan (video in OP)

There's a lot of factors. Depending on the boom length and degree at which the boom was angled there's a max loading capacity that the crane can handle. It looks as if the load exceeded what the crane could handle in those conditions.

Once it starts tipping like that, there ain't nothing you can do about it. Doesn't appear there was an actual failure of any of the structural components of the crane. Probably shouldn't have been operating with the supposedly wind speeds going on.