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Perhaps a stupid question, as most of my knowledge of elevator operation comes from thriller movies, and they will commit any engineering sin as long as it driv

by somat 4y ago

Perhaps a stupid question, as most of my knowledge of elevator operation comes from thriller movies, and they will commit any engineering sin as long as it drive the plot forward. but, how would one self escape an elevator? I mean, you wait a few hours, no indication that any one knows you are trapped between floors, can you go through the roof, and manually open the floor above doors?

kens 4y ago
The ceiling hatch of an elevator is normally locked from the outside. You may be able to pry the doors open. However, in this case, the elevator was an express elevator and the door opened onto a cinder block wall. In the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, one group of people were trapped in an elevator, so they pried the door open, only to find drywall. They laboriously chipped a hole through the drywall with keys, reached through and felt tile. Reaching a bit more, they grabbed a paper toilet seat cover! They had made a hole into the restroom; after expanding the hole, they were able to escape. After that, the World Trade Center elevators were modified so they couldn't be opened from the inside, resulting in unnecessary deaths on 9/11.
- mixmastamyk 4y ago
  Interesting, were can I read about this?
  - kens 4y ago
    I think it was the book "102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers". I'm not 100% sure since I read the book many years ago.
marssaxman 4y ago
What I did, when this happened to me 20-ish years ago, was to pry the doors open and shimmy through the gap. It was not easy, and I don't know how well it would work in a newer elevator, but at the time it seemed to be purely a matter of leverage.
netsharc 4y ago
In the article's case, it says the shaft is sealed between the ground and the 39th floor, and the lift stopped at around floor 13-14, so even if he got to the roof of the elevator, he'd still be in the bottom of a 25 floor tall hole...

by somat 4y ago

kens 4y ago

The ceiling hatch of an elevator is normally locked from the outside. You may be able to pry the doors open. However, in this case, the elevator was an express elevator and the door opened onto a cinder block wall. In the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, one group of people were trapped in an elevator, so they pried the door open, only to find drywall. They laboriously chipped a hole through the drywall with keys, reached through and felt tile. Reaching a bit more, they grabbed a paper toilet seat cover! They had made a hole into the restroom; after expanding the hole, they were able to escape. After that, the World Trade Center elevators were modified so they couldn't be opened from the inside, resulting in unnecessary deaths on 9/11.

mixmastamyk 4y ago
Interesting, were can I read about this?
- kens 4y ago
  I think it was the book "102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers". I'm not 100% sure since I read the book many years ago.

marssaxman 4y ago

What I did, when this happened to me 20-ish years ago, was to pry the doors open and shimmy through the gap. It was not easy, and I don't know how well it would work in a newer elevator, but at the time it seemed to be purely a matter of leverage.

netsharc 4y ago

In the article's case, it says the shaft is sealed between the ground and the 39th floor, and the lift stopped at around floor 13-14, so even if he got to the roof of the elevator, he'd still be in the bottom of a 25 floor tall hole...