A false flag? Elevator drops 84 stories in Chicago skyscraper (formerly known as the John Hancock Center). No injuries. Firemen had to cut hole through wall near the 11th floor of a parking garage to access the elevator.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-met-hancock-building-elevator-rescue-20181116-story.html
How 6 people were rescued from an elevator at the Hancock: 'We don't come down like Batman'
By Hannah Leone and Rosemary Sobol • Contact Reporter
Chicago Tribune
November 19, 2018, 4:11 AM
Firefighters had a pretty good idea of how they would rescue six people trapped in an elevator at the former John Hancock Center early Friday. But first, they had to find the elevator.
The not-so-express elevator was stuck somewhere between the 95th floor and the lobby of Chicago’s fourth-tallest building, one of several cables holding it having broken. It was in a "blind shaft" with no openings firefighters could use to inspect it or reach the trapped — among them tourists from Mexico who had taken it from the Signature Room shortly after midnight.
The passengers, not knowing which of the 95 floors they had landed on, would wait nearly three hours for the rescue.
Two of them were Northwestern University law students who had just ridden up to the Signature Lounge for the first time and were turned away because it was a few minutes past closing time. On the return trip, the elevator started going down faster than they were expecting, said one of the students, who didn’t want her name used for privacy reasons. …
Married couple Jaime and Maña Montemayor of Mexico City were on a business trip and had just finished dinner with a large group. After getting in the elevator they suddenly heard a loud “clack clack clack clack clack,” said Jaime Montemayor, 50.
Then dust particles began seeping into the elevator, and they panicked. …
After about 45 minutes, when the Fire Department got involved, the students realized the solution was not going to be simple. Firefighters kept the group looped into their progress through the speaker.
“They couldn’t find us,” the student said. “We thought we only fell a few floors, but we ended up falling 84.”
The other law student, a 27-year-old woman, said it was the second time this year she’d been stuck in an elevator in Chicago for hours.“That was my first thought. I was like, this is statistically impossible. There’s no way. But I guess lightning does strike twice.’’ …
The first fire crews on the scene had checked the building’s electronic system to get “a rough idea” of where the elevator was — somewhere near the 11th floor of a parking garage, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said. They drilled a small hole in the concrete wall and inserted a tiny camera on a “goose neck” wire to look around and find exactly where it was, Langford said. “Once they did that, they knew which walls to break.” …
[Friend of one of the trapped people], a civil engineer, said he couldn’t believe the situation playing out in one of the most notable buildings in the country.
“This is the second-most important building in Chicago? And this is the third-most important city in the United States?” he said. “In the 98 floors, they have no place to open any door? That is the craziest thing.”
Firefighters cut open a hole about 5 feet by 5 feet. They could see the top half of the elevator.
“They put struts up to make sure it can’t drop anymore, if anything were to happen,” Langford said. "Once they had the shoring and bracings in, they forced the elevator door open and placed a small ladder into the elevator.”
One firefighter went down first, checked the passengers and helped them up the ladder and through the door. One person was suffering from anxiety from being in a confined space, but there were no serious injuries, Langford said.
"We don’t like to have to go through walls unless it’s absolutely necessary," he said. "The only other way to get to the elevator would have been ropes from the 97th floor, and that would not be safe. We don’t come down like Batman so we must go through the wall." …
City Buildings Department spokesman Gregg Cunningham said the elevator was last inspected in July. The cause of the malfunction remained under investigation, but Cunningham said a “hoist rope,” or cable, connected to elevator car 2 failed shortly after midnight.
“That rope is one of several that are connected to the elevator, and, even with this one failing, there’s a redundancy in place,’’ he said. “Specifics of how it failed, and what type of failure, is still under investigation.”
The elevator and two others next to it will be closed to the public until repairs are made and the maintenance company figures out what happened. Those elevators share a “common hoistway space,’’ Cunningham said. “It has to be determined that it’s safe to operate these other adjacent cars.”
[Moar at website]