I had just the opposite happen. I got on an Otis elevator at floor1, punched the button for floor 8(top floor), and got about the 6th floor before problems started. The elevatoe started shaking and then accelerated upward very quickly, felt like it hit the top or some restraining device, and then all the controls went dead. The doors wouldn't open and finally the car descended to floor 7 where a maintenance person got me off. The elevator continued down to 1. It took about a week to get parts to fix the elevator, which has since done the same thing again.I was told by the maintenance person that an elevator will not do what I described, but I was there. Any ideas?

-- anonymous,please (homeplace1@netzero.net), January 10, 2002

Answers

sounds like a lawer to me

-- lawer (not@home.com), January 10, 2002.

not a plunge

How would you know that all of the controls went dead if you were in the elevator? If you "hit a restraining device at the top" you would have tripped the final. You would not have proceeded to the first floor. I agree with the previous poster that this sounds like a lawyer. If not I suggest that you refrain from riding elevators after consuming too many alchoholic beverages, or if you insist on imbibing take the stairs. The worst they will do is shake a little and you may get slightly dizzy, but what the hell at least you won't get stuck or halucinate.

-- Bob (eleman1@aol.com), January 10, 2002.

Perhaps some are a bit hard on this person.

It has been my experience that in many cases, the person is giving their true PERCEPTION of what happened. As someone knowledgable about elevators, you may know that is not really what happened, but the trick is to talk to the person, see how they formed their perceptions and deduce what really happened.

-- John Brannon (akaelevman@AOL.com), January 10, 2002.

not a plunge

John, I guess your right, but after 25 years of hearing these stories it kind of drives you a little nuts when you know something couldn't happen but someone insists it did. I guess I had a tough day.

-- bob (eleman1@aol.com), January 11, 2002.

elevator freefall

in general do you know why an elevator would freefall 16 floors and no safety systems would kick in? the fall ended with being stopped hard, being bounced around and the alarm response was able to open the doors at the bottom floor do you know how many fail safe devices it would have passed in the seconds of falling

-- (jascad98@aol.com), March 05, 2002.

STRANGE THINGS DO HAPPEN. WESTINGHOUSE DMR LEAVES 46TH FLOOR WITH TWO PASSENGERS, CAR MOVES SELECTOR DOES NOT, CAR GOES INTO PIT AT FULL SPEED (1000 FPM), CAR DOORS ACCORDIAN OUTWARD REAR WALL COLLAPSES AND CEILING FALLS IN. OTIS 401 LEAVES 15TH FLOOR OF CASINO HOTEL, CAR PROCEEDS DOWN, STOPS IN MIDSHAFT, ACCELERATES UPWARD, COMES TO ABRUPT STOP, REVERSES DIRECTION, OVERSPEEDS IN DOWN DIRECTION AND GOES ON SAFETY. PASSENGER STATED THAT HE HAD DONE THREE TOURS IN NAM AND HAD TWO CANCER SURGERIES AND WAS NEVER AS AFRAID IN HIS LIFE. I COULD GO ON, BUT IT HAS TAUGHT ME THAT AN ELEVATOR CAN DO MANY THINGS WE AS MECHANICS DON'T THINK POSSIBLE.

-- PATRICK A. CARRAJAT (PAT@CERTIFIEDELEVATOR.COM), February 26, 2003.

I have had two strange experiences in elevators. The most notable was when I pressed the down call button at a bank of 6 elevators. 5 of the doors opened immediately and all 5 elevators were present. All but one shut their doors quickly and I didn't see anyone on any of the elevators. I was a little nervous about getting on the car that was present. The building is 45 floors and this particular bank went from 1,4,16-26. A co-worker had gone down a few minutes earlier and stated he went down to the first floor and the elevator descended very quickly. People on the elevator were pretty scared.

The other incident I got stuck on an elevator for about 5 minutes where it wouldn't move. I pressed the panic button and spoke with someone in Building control. They got me to a secure floor where I got off but couldn't go anywhere. Had to wait about 10 minutes until the same elevator car stopped to pick me up. It was crowded which meant that all the elevators failed (4 in the bank - 7 floors). I told everyone when the doors opened that I refused to get on because I was stuck on that car earlier. Another car eventually stopped and everything was fine then.

We have one car that bounces when loaded when going down. It is in the same bank as described in the first situation. Anybody out there know if this is a sign of eventual failure? It makes several people nervous.

-- Richard W (rickwins@bellsouth.net), July 31, 2003.

That last one was &@%#(n wierd!

-- Rory Jones (rjone01@yahoo.com), December 08, 2004.