I suggest the crane guy was never in that much danger. It's all to do with camera angles. The camera clearly looks down on buildings of 20+ storeys. So I reckon the crane is not free-standing at all, a crane over 600' high would fall over, but is actually one of those that is on top of a building for finishing the structure off. So, although they are high up, if he fell he is actually just 10's of feet above the roof, not hundreds of feet above the ground.