A steel beam plummeted four stories and killed a crane operator and another worker Tuesday at a construction site in Queens, officials said.

The 6,500-pound I-beam was being hoisted into place when it came loose — possibly after a rigging rope failed — and slammed into the crane’s cab. It crushed 47-year-old operator George Smith and Elizandro Enriquez Ramos, 43, a flagman standing nearby. They were killed instantly, authorities said.

Ramos, a father of three girls who lived in Jamaica, Queens, was remembered as a hardworking, humble man.

“He was a good man and a good husband,” said his heartbroken widow Sandra Ramos, 35. “He was a hardworking man who provided for his family. It’s Thanksgiving, I’m going to be without my husband. He left behind three daughters who will be orphans now.”

Smith lived in Mill Basin, Brooklyn.

The two workers were part of a crew erecting a six-story residential building at 81-10 134th St. in Briarwood.

The tragedy occurred at 12:11 p.m. — but it wasn’t until just after 4:30 p.m. that authorities were able to extricate Smith’s body from the flattened machine.

Department of Buildings Commissioner Rick Chandler said the incident was under investigation and no cause has yet been determined — although there were indications a snapped cable was to blame.

“Right now our preliminary discussions are leaning toward material failure with the rigging rope itself,” Chandler said from the scene.

Tuesday’s winds — reaching between 20-to-30 mph and sometimes even gusting up to 40 mph — didn’t appear to be a factor, he added.

“It’s been windy today. The department has issued a couple of wind advisories over the weekend. But I want to be emphatic — we’re not sure that played any role,” he said.

City regulations require crane operators to stop lifting loads when wind speeds at worksites reach 30 mph — but Chandler said it’s up to the individual sites to follow the rules.

“We license the operators of these machines. They are directed with their teams to make the decision as to whether the wind speeds are adequate for what they can lift,” he said.

The mobile crane at the Briarwood site has a 232-foot boom. It was last inspected in June, according to Department of Buildings records.

There wasn’t a master rigger on the site because the job didn’t require it, department officials said, in part because the crane’s boom length was under 250 feet.

Ramos’ 18-year-old daughter, Josseline Ramos, recalled last seeing her dad early Tuesday and called for an investigation into her father’s death.

Mayor de Blasio said the workers’ deaths were a “tragedy” and said a full investigation of the site was underway.

“We need to know, of course, right away whether it was mechanical, was it human error. We don’t know yet,” the mayor said at a news conference outside 1 Police Plaza less than an hour after the beam fell.

Although city officials said wind was an unlikely contributor to the fatal scene, a labor leader questioned the wisdom of working on such a windy day.

“I’m amazed that somebody was crazy enough to use a mobile crane today,” said Pete Corrigan, of the New York District Council of Carpenters.

Ninety percent of his workers were off their jobs Tuesday because of the weather, he said.

The crane is owned by Cranes Express, the city said.

The Staten Island-based company was cited by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration in August 2015 after an incident at a jobsite in Cliffside Park, N.J., records show. The firm, listed by OSHA as nonunion, agreed to pay a $3,500 penalty. A worker at Cranes Express declined comment.

Tuesday’s incident is the latest in a series of crane-related fatalities that have plagued the city in recent years.

On Feb. 5, pedestrian David Wichs, 38, died in Tribeca when the long arm of a crawler crane smashed to the street. Its operator was trying to lower it because of nasty weather. That crane was only approved to work in winds under 20 mph.

Those operators caught using cranes in dangerous conditions face fines — which rose to $10,000 from $4,800 after Wichs’ death. Last month, a group of construction trade organizations filed a lawsuit asking a judge to nullify the 30-mph rule and heftier fines. There was no scientific basis to the city’s edict, they argued.


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