Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver was thrown from her elevator car on the 80th floor and suffered severe burns. First aid workers placed her on another elevator car to transport her to the ground floor, but the cables supporting that elevator had been damaged in the incident, and it fell 75 stories, ending up in the basement.[13] Oliver survived the fall due to the softening cushion of air created by the falling elevator car within this elevator shaft; however, she had suffered a broken pelvis, back and neck when rescuers found her amongst the rubble.[14] This remains the world record for the longest survived elevator fall.
Betty had a shit fucking day.
Especially bad when you consider the elevator shouldn’t have fallen in the first place.
Elisha Otis invented his automatic elevator brakes in 1853 – designed to instantly stop cars from falling if the cables snap … and the Empire State Building used Otis safety elevators.
Given how dead simple and reliable the safety mechanism is something must have gone horrible wrong.
Holy fuck