Speedbird wrote:1b.
2.
The good news bit: falling lifts are the stuff of films. As far as I know, (and somebody will now correct me) thanks to Mr Otis, catastrophic failures in cable lifts have not resulted in fatalities.
*I don't know the full story, but I remember reading that two people were killed in a lift in Russia a few years back.
It was a large television tower or something similar.
Ok, ok, it WAS on fire at the time, but still..... *
According to http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/aug20 ... -a30.shtml they died of suffocation.
"According to recent reports, four people died in the fire: three fire fighters and an operator suffocated as fire caused the elevator they were riding in to stick in the shaft before plunging down."
This is partially backed up by the BBC report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monito ... 903942.stm
They were killed when the lift they were in crashed to the bottom of the tower. It was followed by the lift's counterweight and some three kilometres of cabling.
We have one breathing apparatus between the three of us. We are suffocating
"Even experienced rescue personnel who recovered the bodies from the lift shaft said this was a terrible death", the TV said.
"The lift cabin carrying the three did not fall immediately," it went on.
"First, the lift was stranded at a height of 250 metres. It became red-hot. It was plunged into complete darkness and the cabin filled with smoke.
"The last words which Col Arsyukov managed to report to people on the ground were: 'We have one breathing apparatus between the three of us, we are suffocating.'"
"Soon the cables snapped and the lift plummeted, smashing through the concrete floor and burying itself seven metres into the basement."
It suggests that the cause of death was suffocation, although had they survived this and the 250 m fall, the counterweight and 3km of cabling would probably have reduced the chances of survival somewhat.
Tallest building in Europe by the way - a fact well worth remembering for a pub quiz