A FATHER and his son fell over 100ft to their deaths in a horror work accident after the platform they were on suddenly collapsed.
David Bottomley, 53, and his son Clayton, 17, were working on the exterior cladding of one of the two towers that make up the Unity building in Liverpool.
An inquest into their deaths at the city’s Gerard Majella Courthouse heard from onlookers who told police about the moments before a brake failed on the platform.
David and Clayton fell from the 21st floor and landed on a road on the seventh floor, the court heard.
Jack Watson, a paramedic, was in his flat on the 13th floor when he was awoken by the sound of the impact.
The paramedic likened the sound to “a plane crash or car bomb“.
Jack rushed down to help but stated David showed “clear signs of a brain injury, wasn’t conscious,” and had no pulse.
The 53-year-old was declared dead at the scene, while Clayton died four days later at Aintree University Hospital, where he had been in intensive care.
The Unity building is a 27-storey residential block featuring 161 apartments, alongside a 16-floor building consisting of commercial space.
Shanee Tatton, who resides in a flat on the 21st floor, explained how the two had appeared outside her window before tragically falling to their deaths.
She said David had been “making me laugh” before the pair started drilling on the outside of the building.
Shanee added that she was in an online meeting when she heard “a loud noise that sounded like something falling and crashing at speed, like a sound I’d never heard before”.
Thomas Blanchfield was in a solicitors officer adjacent to the tower when the two men fell.
In his statement, he explained that he saw David attempt to grab something before the platform began to fall.
The witness added that he saw both David and Clayton seemingly bracing themselves before hearing several “loud clicks,” after which the platform dropped about a foot before plunging into freefall.
“It was a noise like a Catherine wheel or a zip-wire,” his statement read.
Thomas added: “I shouted ‘the baskets have dropped.’
“I did not see it hit the floor but I heard the crash and could see it bounce back up a floor and a half.”
Laura Hampton, who was in the same office building, recalled how people who saw the father and son fall started “screaming”.
The inquest, currently underway, is expected to last seven days.
