I'll come back to this, as it does somewhat tie in with the point I was making earlier.
If a guy overseeing it on site up there, feels something is unsafe to do or attempt, he damn sure is calling it off on the spot and trying again another day, no ifs or buts or questions asked, programme and cost be damned.
The fact they loosely lined it up, but never got even close to trying to fit it, while also never really seeming to have the piece restrained or under control to me suggests one of 4 things.
- it is either SO far out, that it is that obvious without getting it any closer. Which would be a big and costly fuck-up.
- it may be fine or nearly fine, but it just didn't feel safe to persevere or try.
- it was never planned to go in that day, and the whole thing was a bit of a practice run to see how it lifts and moves at that height in the air, so they can plan how to handle it for real.
- the dimensions and connections are fine, but getting them to fit in a sequence due to varying angles and convergences has not really been made clear or thought right the way through.
Of those, the first one seems the least likely tbh, and if that was the case, there would have been checking measurements and photos being taken as you point out.