Two New Zealanders are lucky to be alive during their visit to Chicago.
The pair was in an elevator of the city's fourth tallest structure, when it malfunctioned on Friday and sent six people plummeting down, the Huffington Post reports.
The New Zealanders haven't been named, but the Huffington Post says two of the six elevator passengers were "in town from New Zealand" while another two were visiting from Mexico.
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"I believed we were going to die," one passenger told CBS Chicago. "We were going down and then I felt that we were falling down and then I heard a noise - clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack."
The 100-storey skyscraper, formerly known as the John Hanckock Centre, was descending from the 95th floor. Known today as Chicago's 875 N. Michigan Avenue building, it's understood the elevator dropped after a lift cable broke.
The passengers had been visiting a restaurant overlooking the skyline, and had chosen to use the express lift on their way down, the Chicago Tribune reports. But suddenly, the elevator started getting "bumpy" and moving quickly.
The lift sped downwards before coming to an abrupt stop somewhere between the 11th and 12th floor. Then dust and dirt began falling from the ceiling, which spooked the passengers even more, a law student told the Tribune.
The rescue was tricky because the passengers were trapped in a "blind shaft", meaning there were no doors through which emergency services could enter the shaft, Chicago Fire Department Battalion Chief Patrick Maloney told ABC 7 Chicago.
He said the malfunction had been caused by a "hoist rope", or lift cable, that broke. Luckily some of the cables were still attached which prevented the elevator from crashing all the way to the bottom.
A Chicago Buildings Department spokesperson told the Tribune that the elevator had last been inspected in July and that the cause of the malfunction would remain under investigation.
Newshub.
