According to an example of the broken jib accident of a high pedestal jib crane (HM2564) in a Shipyard Co., Ltd. in Guangdong province, this paper used a finite element software ANSYS to establish a solid model for the jib frame of the crane, calculated the stresses of jib system under various actual working conditions and checked the strengths. Simultaneously, the reasons of broken jib were quantitatively analyzed from the perspective of mechanics. The results show that the strengths of the jib system meet the requirements of safe use under all kinds of working conditions, but the related hoistman incorrectly operated the facility, cables can’t be winded normally in pulleys, thus resulting in that the tensile force of a cable was directly applied on the main jib by pulley spindle and the failure of the jib frame occurred under heavy compressive force of lifting cables.