Wow! I can't believe they still attemped to climb out after the elevator started moving up. Passenger stupidity never ceases to amaze me.

How did that door get open on the floor above? If it was picked by a "rescuer", why isn't the elevator secured before opening the doors? Why is the elevator moving up?

Why?Why?Why? Aaaaaah!

F

Don't know what happened above. Anyway, this reminds me that any rescue has it's moments where things can go seriously wrong. This one clearly illustrates a failure to clearly communicate from one party (at the wrong landing), to the other (in the machine room) nearly killing, or seriously injuring the last students to exit. I wonder if there were only firemen at both locations doing what they thought (in their ignorance) was right, or was there an elevator man involved somewhere in this story? Scary video to say the least.

i have had to drift a few cars recently due to a building switch gear/buss duct failure. making sure that passengers park their ass on the floor until i come get them or they will get hurt is the first thing that i tell them. we also install a gate switch monitor to make sure they are still on the floor. this video should be shown to everyone in a high rise building to scare them into staying put in the elevator.

It's very similar to the death (Nov, 2011?) at Cal State Long Beach, where the elevator was moving with the doors open, during a rescue attempt. This event could easily have ended the same, or worse.

Greenpants- When you say "gate switch monitor", I assume you are not talking only about standard door lock contact monitoring, but rather, a special gate switch monitoring device, that you hang on the controller during a rescue? Like a meter, or a light of some kind?

its a otis tool that we hook up to the gate field wires. it has a buzzer and a light to tell you the gate is open. we have one on every high rise job with a brake pick tool for emergencies. otis def doesn't want this to happen. its even in a big red bag lol

Are you seperately powering the gate circuit for the indicator light to work?

I've had building bus blow up, starter panels melt down, and I kept an old selenium rectifier around for high rise rescue. I rigged it to run single phase which gave me about 180 VDC when plugged into a wall outlet. Then disconnect the brake wires from the controller and hook rectifier to brake wires. Then position a comrade at the next available landing with the hoistway doors open, and communicating with me via phone or walky talky.

Do Not move the car in this method more than about one revolution at a time. Car can get away from you if you do more. I put a knife switch in series with the brake coil as well. Watch out for the ARC..IR is hell on that collapsing field of that big ass brake coil.

I've only had to do it twice in about 35 years, but it did work, and it is memorable.

I ask about the indicator light on the gate circuit, because the old method I used, as described above when dinasours walked the earth...The control was powered down.

hey broke, im sure this light/buzzer system is not seperately powered bc if it was it may short the car door. the other brake lifter you described i would never use. whats wrong with using the mechanical brake lifter?

Didn't have them back when I was in the field for a 269 or 319 machine..(BIG gearless (Like each shoe weighing around 6 to 8 hundred pounds..)

If the controller power is shut down, I just figured you would have to seperately power the gate circuit for an indicator lamp in the circuit to work.

It is cool reading about what you guys are doing nowadays...

I have lost it very few times on the job. But I distinctly remember being called to help out on a high rise job with trapped passengers in a blind hatch. I walk into the machine room and find the route "Mechanic????" and 2 other brethren watching this "Mechanic????" attempt to loosen spring tension on a 219 machine. (Passengers were about 20 floors down in a blind hatch, on a 70 story building..)...

Luckily he didn't have a big enough pair of channel locks, and had instead loosened all the adjustements so the brake would not pick, when I finally hunted down my rectifier box.

Yes...I lost it....I cursed him, and offered to duke it out with him, and the other 2 guys standing around watching this fiasco, fixing to happen. Don't know why I wasn't a popular fixture on that job after that..LOL...

you disconnect both field wires to the gate switch. the box has a battery to power the light and buzzer. this situation a buss duct and switchgear melted down. no main line or generator or lights in the machine room. drifting cars via PPT tape marks to get to floor level. happened 3 time in a month in the building.

That's kind of what I thought...Thanks GP!!!

jeez i cant believe a mechanic would loosen the brakes like that. just down right criminal.ive only worked on upto 60 floor buildings and all machines had a mechanical brake lifter(code required), all makes needed them. in fact our training never had us us any other way including otis internal brake arms.i can see what you mean about real heavy brake systems but ive never seen them.1 thing i will say is that stuck passengers will always be safe in the car. it must be stressed to new mechanics/apprentices that not to rush to release passengers and think about the situation.