City of Arlington completes inspection of AT&T Stadium after metal roof mishap. Here's what it found.
ARLINGTON, Texas - We now know what caused a piece of the AT&T Stadium roof to fall onto the field before Monday night's Cowboys game. Officials are now working to make sure it doesn't happen again.
The large piece of metal seen falling from the stadium roof was captured by ESPN’s network cameras.
By Tuesday, there was a slew of construction company vehicles in the stadium parking lot and crew members milling about.
The city of Arlington released a statement summarizing a review between a city building inspector, deputy fire marshal and the Dallas Cowboys organization.
"The metal was a cover that had not been properly secured on top of a cable tray, which is where low-voltage electrical wires are grouped together," the statement read. "While the roof was open, wind blew the unsecured cover off the cable tray, which was on the catwalk near the top of the stadium. No further inspection is needed."
In a postgame interview, team owner Jerry Jones addressed the fallen piece of metal.
"Wind apparently did a little damage. And then when we tried to open it up, the winds got underneath the roof at that time," he said. "And so everybody agreed that it did some damage. But check around. Dallas had wind gusts all afternoon."
The falling metal mishap is another notable incident for the iconic stadium.
In 2011 ahead of Super Bowl 45, six workers were injured when sheets of ice and snow fell from the stadium roof during a historic ice storm.
At the Super Bowl itself, hundreds of frustrated fans ended up with obstructed views because of issues with temporary seating that the NFL later took responsibility for.
And there’s the persistent debate about curtains, which resurfaced this season when Dallas receiver Ceedee Lamb said a crucial dropped touchdown pass was due to the blinding sun through the large glass windows on the west end of the field.
As for Monday night’s mishap, Jones is feeling fortunate no one was hurt.
"It's fixable, but you didn't have… that wasn't the situation, the time or otherwise, to do it tonight," he said. "And certainly, there was no risk at all to anybody on the field playing once we shut the roof."
The Cowboys organization underscored that there are no structural issues with the roof or the venue itself. The team points out additional work was performed to further secure the additional cover lids for the cable trays.