# Trapped in a lift hurtling to the ground...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 24, 2003, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154 "2003-06-24T22:11:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2003, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/41 "2003-06-28T16:59:09Z")
Worse Case Scenario (the TV show) just had this on this morning.
“How to survive a free falling elevator”
The stunt man said that the best way to survive is to grab ahold of the hand rail and bend at the knees. Your arms and legs would act as dampeners.
They did mention that jumping at impact would not help.😉
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### Author:  [@finette6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/finette6)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2003, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/42 "2003-06-28T18:25:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by manhattan \*
> \*\*That’s just a damn good question I’d love to know the answer to. I’ve been looking for stories (heh) about the famous elevator free-fall in the Empire State Building (bomber hits building, cleaning lady falls 78 or 81 stories, depending on the tale).
>
> I’ve read from various sources that a) there was a spring at the bottom, b) there was _not_ a spring at the bottom but that the coiling cable acted as a spring :dubious: , c) the shaft was tight enough that compressed air acted as a brake, d) the normal safety systems worked well enough to slow the car and e) we don’t know why the lady lived.
>
> If someone could get the true Straight Dope on the story [(here’s one recounting to get you started)](http://www.elevator-world.com/magazine/archive01/9603-002.htm), that would be a nice blow against ignornace. \*\*
I don’t know anything about the mechanics of how she survived, but I want to point out that she was an elevator operator, NOT a ‘cleaning lady’. About a year ago I read an interview with her in ‘True Story’ magazine which I concede is no scientific or historical journal, but it was an issue from only a few years after the incedent, so it qualifies as a more-or less primary source I’d say. She had been chosen as ‘woman of the month’ or some similar title because of her recovery, etc.
She suffered pretty bad spinal and other injuries, but by the time of the interview she had made a full recovery. I’ll look for the magazine at home tonight, and if anyone is still paying attention to this question I’ll quote some of it. (IANA old lady, I collect back issues of ‘confessions’ magazines and read them cover to cover. I don’t know whether to be proud of it, but it is so fun)
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### Author:  [@Uncommon\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncommon_Sense)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2003, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/43 "2003-06-29T02:15:32Z")
**stockton** `s link above pretty much covers the story of the Lady falling in great detail. Make sure you have read that article **finette6**. It`s pretty detailed. And good.
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### Author:  [@finette6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/finette6)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trapped-in-a-lift-hurtling-to-the-ground/184154/44 "2003-06-29T16:18:23Z")
Whuckfistle-
yes, it is a great article… I did read it last night, when I said I didn’t know about the mechanics, I meant not more than anyone else on the thread, assuming that they had read Stockton’s link too. I pulled out mine and discovered it was from 1960 (my collection is kinda broad) and so is probably no more or less reliable than a readers’ digest piece from '58 (the source material in Stockton’s link) Plus it was, as can be assumed from the nature of the source, full of hyperbole and conjecture…
Basically the bit I found on rereading my article that seemed the most helpful was their assertion that when she was pulled from the car in the basement, which was more or less destroyed, she had curled up in the corner, “occupying a column [of elevator space, apparantly] less than 8 inches square” implying that her position in the elevator had contributed to her survival as much as the safety devices and the air pressure.
\*I guess what follows is a hijack, and I promise I’ll never do it again… \*
My main reason for posting was, in fact to nitpick the assertion that Betty Lou Oliver was a cleaning lady- I guess it’s oversensitive of me, but I thought it was a tad sexist, regardless of the poster’s gender, especially since both of the linked articles clearly state her occupation.
Having read about the 1945 incident in early 2002, I was really surprised that, in all the September 11 hoopla, I had never heard a mention of it. While it is obviously not comparable in terms of national security or sheer loss of life, it seems to me that pointing out a previous time when a plane hit a New York City landmark would make sense. Then again, maybe I don’t watch enough cable news.
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