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