Lift failure

Lift failure

From Kompas

On Sept. 6, 1994 we had dinner at the Kirishima Restaurant on the 25th floor of Atria Square on Jl. Sudirman, Jakarta. After finishing our meal at 9:40 p.m. we went down to the ground floor by using the first lift situated to the right of the restaurant's entrance. There were 19 people including six children in the lift, whereas four of our family members were using the other lift next to the first one.

When we reached the fifth floor the lift was shaking violently. We all kept quiet and when the lift's lamp indicated the third floor, we heard a loud boom. Everybody in the lift shouted at once. The lift had apparently plunged to the first floor. We tried to open the door to no avail.

When we pressed the alarm bell asking for help, an unfriendly answer came: "Don't be silly." We were deadly surprised to hear such a vulgar comment. We then repeated our cry for help because the air was already becoming oppressive. We failed. After being trapped for about 15 minutes, the man in charge told us that they would try to open the door manually. It was obvious that they were not very sensitive to emergency situations and overly slow in responding to our call.

We were completely in the dark as to why the lift did not work properly. They did not even utter a word of apology which gave us the impression that such incidents are common. They blamed the overcrowded lift, but it was not true. There were only 19 people in the lift, six of them children.

H.E. SOEKASAH SOMAWIDJAJA

Jakarta