Posted on 01/23/2015 10:29:54 AM PST by Kaslin
On your list of worst nightmares, where does suddenly-plunging elevator rank?
If not number one, at least in the top five, right?
For Greta Van Susteren, that bad dream suddenly became reality as the car abruptly dropped four floors with no warning at all, then left her and several others trapped between levels with no way out. Lasting 10 frightening minutes, they were finally able to pry the doors open and crawl out.
Incidentally, if a lift is headed uncontrollably to the bottom, the best possible way to survive is to lie flat on the floor.
The incident happened in Hanoi as the Fox News Channel host, Reverend Franklin Graham and several charity workers were headed to the offices of Samaritans Purse.
Some of it was filmed, where at one point Reverend Graham quips “if it goes down, I’m going up”:
After escaping, they used the stairs, even though they were on the 24th floor.
Van Susteren later described what happened:
We had just reached the 24th floor when the elevator stopped for no apparent reason .then jerked and jerked and falling and jerking and falling and jerking until it stopped. We were all quite rattled as we did not know if it would continue to fall and we had no idea if the cable holding the elevator car was broken and if there were any back up system (this is an oldish building in Vietnam.)
One of us pulled the door apart only for all of us to see the worst just a solid cement wall. That was really bad news. Then the elevator car started to slip further down and of course we had no idea where that was headed I feared we were going to break loose and go all the way down which would have been a certain death for all of us. As the elevator car slid down, we made calls and tried pushing all the buttons on the panel.
Suddenly, one of our group noticed some light and pulled the doors open again and this time we had about a 2 foot crawl space. We made a mad scramble to get out and drop to the floor (the 24th). Franklin later told me he feared the elevator would drop again as one of us was getting out which would have meant a certain death for that person. We all made it safely out .walked up the steps to our original destination of floor 32 .and then when we left, none of us took the elevator. We walked down 32 flights.
Thankfully, everyone was unhurt, but the outcome could have been quite different.
Hanoi?
Stuck In A Closet With Vanna White
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gocPZA0HLA
more like cut in half!
...if it goes down, Im going up...LOL
Praise God they are all O.K.. This is going to make for a great story!
I guess it failed the inspection huh.
Top 10 Elevator Scenes in Movies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Othrur-T6rM
LMAO!
I have had a crush on Greta for the past 15 years. My wife is aware but she does not appear to be concerned about it.
Laurie Dhue, recovering alcoholic, my wife says she would have to be drunk to have sex with me.
Referring to this claim: “Incidentally, if a lift is headed uncontrollably to the bottom, the best possible way to survive is to lie flat on the floor.”
(Got omitted somehow)
My wife and I got stuck in an elevator in a parking garage in Honolulu on our honeymoon 31 years ago. We rang the bell, tried the phone, waited about an hour, shouted — nothing!
I finally pried the doors open and there was about a three or four foot drop to the nearest floor. We hopped out, but in that instant we were in the opening, I terrified the car would move. Back then there were no automated payment systems, so we yelled at the guy collecting money in the booth at the exit. He couldn’t have possibly cared any less. He nonchalantly went back to reading his book and didn’t lift a finger to fix the problem.
Greta’s experience was far scarier, dropping about four floors. Yikes!
“If it goes down, I’m going up.”
Atheist would reply: “Sorry, in Vietnam, gravity will nguyen.”
Possibly too much weight in the elevator multiple people and their luggage. I remember that happening to a group of us on a college tour to Europe. It was in a hotel in Madrid, Spain. We got into the elevator, with our suit cases, pushed the button for one of the upper floors and immediately dropped to the basement, only one or two stories, we were “shaken but not broken,” to paraphase Jame Bond.
Hey, at least she'd have been with good company who could slip in a good word.
Is Van Susteren still providing in depth coverage of the Lacy/Scott Peterson case? I quit watching her after the first year of nightly coverage of the case.
Oh that was nice...
Thanks for the ping. Two floors can be a serious fall. I’m glad you were not broken.
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