04/14/2008
41 hours in Elevator Hell
Check out this time-lapse video of Business Week production manager Nicholas White's 41 -hour ordeal in an elevator of the McGraw-Hill Building in Rockefeller Center, which he experienced beginning on a Friday night in 1999 after going outside for a cigarette break:
"When White finished his cigarette, he returned to the lobby and, waved along by a janitor buffing the terrazzo floors, got into Car No. 30 and pressed the button marked 43. The car accelerated. It was an express elevator, with no stops below the thirty-ninth floor, and the building was deserted. But after a moment White felt a jolt. The lights went out and immediately flashed on again. And then the elevator stopped."
Gawker notes, White is unemployed and the experience pretty much altered his life forever.
Watch it, AFTER THE JUMP...
Up and Then Down [the new yorker]
Sphere: Related ContentPosted 11:48 AM EST by Andy in New York, News | Permalink
Comments
Poor guy. Oh, my Lord.
If I ever got stuck in an elevator, I'd want it to be with a fine Latino Papi (preferably a Dominican, Dear Lord--that's Dominican Republican, not the priests, Lord--but he could be both). 'Course I'd have to find a way to cover the camera lense. Then, again, why not keep the video for future lonely weekend nights?
Posted by: Derrick from Philly | Apr 14, 2008 12:10:17 PM
Always carry a cellphone. At least you might be able to get a signal. And don't most elevators have emergency phones in the panel? If not, they need to get those. Ridiculous.
Posted by: Emmy | Apr 14, 2008 12:13:28 PM
Dominican Republic, not a Republican...hell, that could be Matt Sanchez.
Posted by: Derrick from PHilly | Apr 14, 2008 12:25:59 PM
Every service person in that fucking building should have lost his job after that. How excruciating.
Posted by: Tread | Apr 14, 2008 12:26:37 PM
"White is unemployed and the experience pretty much altered his life forever"
Uhm, YEAH!
All he needs is lawyer with a pulse, if that, and he is going to get a big fat check.
Posted by: Jimmyboyo | Apr 14, 2008 12:29:21 PM
this is not something to watch if you suffer from an anxiety disorder... now i was caught in an elevator once and it was packed! luckily the stop lasted only about 10 seconds but i can assure you that it was a triple valium moment... i think miss derrick has the right idea and i admire her taste in men so lets make it a hot latino papi who sells bag lunches -- there's nothing like a roast beef with chedder on a nice flaky croissant (with plenty of mayo please and a dollop of grey poupon) -- and along with a nice cold coke and the company it most certainly would help me keep my sanity...
Posted by: the queen | Apr 14, 2008 12:36:29 PM
I hope he quit smoking. :P
Posted by: Eric | Apr 14, 2008 12:51:17 PM
"White is unemployed and the experience pretty much altered his life forever."
I don't quite understand how an event like this, as terrible and unforgivable as it was, could possibly result in unemployment and what sounds like a significant psychopathology 9 years later. He was stuck in an elevator for two days. Aside from the obvious nutrition and hydration dangers, what other injuries did he have? He deserves his day in court, to be sure... McGraw will have to pay up to settle this one. But... still unemployed? I'm not buying it.
Posted by: The Milkman | Apr 14, 2008 1:10:07 PM
Read the story, guys.
He did get a lawyer... the lawyer encouraged him not to go back to work... he lost his job... the case dragged on for 4 years... he settled for a small amount... he's not able to communicate with his former colleagues... and now he's having a tough time finding a job.
Posted by: crispy | Apr 14, 2008 1:32:56 PM
Sorry Milkman, but I would still have to be taking Valium nine years later. The elevator in our apartment building is about that size. Somebody else was stuck in it, and I shook the rest of the day.
Posted by: Mike in the Tundra | Apr 14, 2008 1:38:12 PM
How horrible! It happened to me once,but didn't last that long-thank goodness-My boyfriend at the time had had a few drinks and decided to jump up and down and the elevator stopped instantly. We were stuck in there from 3am to like 5am... And yup we did get our groove on! It was one of those old elevators and no cameras inside.
Posted by: Shabaka | Apr 14, 2008 1:43:20 PM
I was in a service elevator in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in NYC once and it went up 50 floors without stopping, then when it reached the top floor the doors wouldn't open. Then without any buttons being pushed it suddenly dropped about 10 floors and then dropped all the way to the ground floor, just slowing down in time not to kill me. And believe me, I will never get over it either!
Posted by: sounds familier | Apr 14, 2008 1:45:55 PM
I need a Valium just from watching that clip!
Posted by: Zeke | Apr 14, 2008 2:20:04 PM
cigarettes are bad.
Posted by: eric | Apr 14, 2008 2:24:35 PM
"Looking back on the experience now, with a peculiarly melancholic kind of bewilderment, he recognizes that he walked onto an elevator one night, with his life in one kind of shape, and emerged from it with his life in another. Still, he now sees that it wasn’t so much the elevator that changed him as his reaction to it. He has come to terms with the trauma of the experience but not with his decision to pursue a lawsuit instead of returning to work. If anything, it prolonged the entrapment. He won’t blame the elevator."
Posted by: Mike | Apr 14, 2008 3:41:23 PM
I assume he had to use the bathroom a few times. That would be one of the (many) worst parts.
It's baffling that no one checked the building's security cameras the entire weekend.
Posted by: Paul R | Apr 14, 2008 4:14:07 PM
I had this happen to me. (Well, except the 41 hours part -- mine was only about 10 minutes.) I was visiting Ellis Island with family this past winter. My mother has trouble with steps so often takes the elevator when she can. The elevator for the park is part of the building off of the beaten track. I agreed to walk back with her to it and keep her company. We got on the elevator and 10 kids and chaperones from some high school jumped on with us.
The elevator went up to the second floor and stopped and nothing happened -- no doors opened -- we just sat. Then it went up to the third floor and just stopped again. The doors never opened. The elevator was pretty tightly packed and some people were getting pretty nervous. Its weird how contagious panic can be. The kids in the back thought it was funny and were giggling and one woman started screaming "if you all shut up, you'll stop using up our air."
The guy nearest the control panel started ringing the emergency bell but we were in the back of the building and several winding hallways from anyone who could hear it. We picked up the emergency phone. It rang 6 times and then we heard "No one is available to take your call at the present time. Please hang up and try your call during normal business hours." I tried using my cell phone but couldn't get any signal.
The guy tried the bell again and then the phone. We got the same recorded message. He kept on trying alternating between the bell and the phone. It was starting to get really warm in the elevator. I never realized that there isn't really a ventilation system in most elevators so with everyone crammed in there, it didn't take long to get really warm.
Finally, the guy nearest the door forced the doors open. We were about 1 foot below the floor. We started helping everyone out though that probably wouldn't have been the best idea had the elevator started moving.
To add insult to injury I went back downstairs and found a park ranger. I told her that we had been trapped in the elevator and no one answered the phone or the bell. She replied curtly "yeah, we were aware of it" and walked away. It would've have been nice had someone yelled to us "hey we know you're in there and we'll get you out." Even I had started wondering how many hours it would be until someone noticed we were missing and figured our where we were.
For all the money spent on "security" at our National Parks, I never felt less safe. It's too bad that the government takes such a short-sighted approach to that concept.
Posted by: Ed | Apr 14, 2008 4:37:19 PM
Every urban dweller's worst nightmare: being stuck in an elevator AND no one around to help! I was stuck in an elevator a while back. The car was crowded and the elevator had stalled between floors. It was standing room only and the ventilation went off. I was convinced I was going to lose my mind! Just at the point I was ready to "snap", the car lurched to the next floor down, the doors opened and everybody ran off the elevator. Some maintenance guy arrived and assured us it was safe to get back on but myself and four other people said "fuck that" and we walked down 38 flights to the lobby. This happened on a Friday so I was able to get my nerve back by Monday, but to this day I get nervous whenever I am on an elevator.
Posted by: mike | Apr 20, 2008 4:55:18 AM
OMG. This brings back memories. I was trapped in an elevator that wouldn't stop when I was 13. It traveled up twelve floors and back down twelve floors for fifteen minutes. I was with another woman and she was seriously freaking out. I was scared, but more scared b'c my older sister was inthe store and I knew she'd be looking for me. This was in the 70s so there were no phones on the elevators, only an emergency stop button that didn't work (it was a really old elevator system, probably the same one that my grandmother traveled in when she worked in the store in the 40s and 50s). Finally the elevator screeched to a halt, the doors opened and we were about five feet above a floor and there were firemen there to get us out. I let the woman go first and she had to go to the hospital, she was so shook up. It was a damn long time before I rode an elevator again. My heart goes out to this guy and to anyone who's ever been in this situation.
Posted by: devilgirl | Apr 20, 2008 10:29:42 AM
well any reasonable person would be deeply efFected by this incident. Hopefully someopne reads this article and gives the man a job!
Posted by: Rex | Apr 20, 2008 6:40:56 PM
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