Original subtitles

Th

The

The pe

The peop

The people

The people a

The people are

The people are s

The people are squ

The people are squas

The people are squashe

The people are squashed

in such a manner that

that type of accident, I have never seen such.

Narrator: Elevators and escalators,

simple daily conveniences that we take for granted.

But when they malfunction, the consequences can be brutal.

They're in our shopping malls, our office buildings,

even our homes.

Billions of vertical journeys take in every day.

We seldom question their safety and never consider

that, if something should go wrong,

we are at the mercy of tonnes of solid steel and gravity.

Now, through exceptional archives

and computer-generated images,

we'll reconstruct and examine

10 of the most devastating

elevator and escalator accidents.

Reporter: ...discarded cigarette.

Narrator: We'll investigate the circumstances

that led to these disasters.

(Screaming)

What happened?

Could they have been avoided?

How many people were killed or injured?

And what have we learned from each tragedy?

From the personal trauma of being trapped in an elevator

for a whole weekend,

to the national tragedy

of an entire shift of miners losing their lives.

We'll assess the devastation, count the costs,

and examine 10 of the most dramatic

vertical transportation accidents.

(Dramatic music)

♪ You and I ♪

Narrator: Elevators and escalators

have changed civilization.

They have allowed cities to grow upwards

rather than outwards

and enabled people to effortlessly reach

their homes and offices in the clouds

in just a couple of minutes.

(Bubbly pop music)

But no form of transport is completely without danger.

(Ominous music)

Accidents, negligence and freak events

can lead to catastrophic failure.

Escalators can become death slides

and elevator cars can quickly become tombs.

And there's nothing passengers can do to stop it.

To rank these 10 devastating

elevator and escalator accidents,

we factored in the scale of the event,

the level of global exposure it received,

the impact on future regulations

and, of course, its toll on human lives:

lost, injured and traumatized.

Let's start with the event that ranks 10th on our list.

♪

For our first incident, we go to Hong Kong

and the Langham Place Shopping Centre.

It's easy to forget that escalators

are pieces of heavy machinery.

They're stable, move slowly,

and do their job practically unnoticed.

They're as unobtrusive as a wall or a bench.

However, the typical escalator is almost 10 tonnes of metal,

operating at around 40 horsepower,

as heavy as a truck and as powerful as a small tractor.

Anything as heavy and powerful as that

has great potential for danger should something go wrong.

And things go wrong more often than you might think.

With 17,000 escalator-related injuries

every year in the US alone,

and an average of 30 deaths,

most incidents are unspectacular.

But occasionally, an escalator has a dramatic malfunction

that captures worldwide media attention.

That's what happened at Langham Place

on the afternoon of March 25, 2017.

Dozens of shoppers were using the 45-metres-long stairway

to move to the upper floor

when suddenly, and without warning,

it reversed direction and more than doubled in speed

from a sedate 1.8 kilometres per hour

to a jarring 5 kilometres per hour.

♪

(Crowd chaos)

Thrown off balance by the sudden change in direction,

some shoppers tumbled down the stairs...

...while those near the bottom

struggled to move out of the way.

A dangerous, crushing situation quickly developed

as bodies piled on top of one another.

Shoppers rushed to help free the trapped victims,

preventing a greater tragedy.

The incident lasted only a few terrifying seconds,

but that was long enough for 18 people

to suffer injuries that required medical attention.

(Screaming and exclaiming)

An investigation determined that the escalator's drive chain

had broken from metal fatigue

and the emergency braking system

had failed from a buildup of sticky grease.

This dual failure left dozens of passengers

at the mercy of gravity and 10 tonnes of steel.

Further study of the chain revealed

that more segments of both the chain and the gear sprockets

were severely fatigued and at risk of failure.

It proved that maintenance had been lax

and that the failure of the escalator

was only a matter of time.

♪

Two technicians from Otis Elevator Company

were arrested on charges of negligence,

but neither were prosecuted.

The company was fined 320,000 Hong Kong dollars,

just over 35,000 euros.

Incidents like these are thankfully very rare,

but a reminder that when riding an escalator,

you are interacting with heavy machinery.

So please hold the handrail.

♪

Let's head to the United States to discover

the incident that ranks 9th place on our list.

It took place in the elevator

of a skyscraper in New York.

At 11:00 p.m. on Friday, October 15, 1999,

Nicholas White was returning to his desk on the 43rd floor

of the McGraw Hill Building in Manhattan.

He took the express elevator at lobby level,

but after a few seconds, it jolted to a halt.

The intercom and the alarm brought no response,

and with the building deserted over the weekend,

he began to contemplate the idea

that this elevator could be his tomb.

Nicholas: I played with the alarm button.

I let it go for a while.

Then I would, like, tap out SOS or whatever

for a while to see if that...

But it was pretty obvious to me that the bell

on the top of the elevator was out of range

of anybody that could possibly hear me.

You know, that's when I wondered, you know,

I wonder if this could be the worst,

and what a pathetic way to go, you know.

Narrator: Less than two hours into his ordeal,

he had tried the doors and the roof hatch,

the only possible escape routes.

The escape hatch on the roof was no help,

as it was locked from the outside.

The hatches are for emergency workers to get in,

not passengers to get out.

Nicholas: I didn't actually shed a tear,

but I did swear.

You know, I did yell at the camera.

I did hit the wall a couple times.

I tried to move around, but when it got to that stage,

I'd have to, once again, bring myself back down.

Narrator: He took an inventory--

no food, no water, just three cigarettes

and a couple of antacid tablets.

His mind started to race.

He studied the contents of his wallet,

and he plotted what to say to the colleagues

who hadn't reported his absence,

anything to occupy his brain.

As the hours tick by, he tries to convince himself

that someone will eventually intervene

and that everything will turn out fine.

Nicholas: Steel cables aren't gonna break.

Someone's gonna find you, I hope.

Narrator: With no watch and no cell phone,

he had no idea how much time had passed.

The cameras show him finally succumbing

to exhaustion at 3:00 a.m.

Nicholas: I saw myself on the ground

and it didn't look like me.

That's not the way I sleep.

Narrator: But despite trying for nearly six hours,

he could not sleep.

♪

On Saturday morning, maintenance staff

started working on several of the other elevator cars,

oblivious to Nicholas' plight.

♪

After nearly a full day in the car,

he was able to force the doors open again

and discovered he was on the 13th floor.

This was bad news.

Express elevators operate in blind hoist ways.

These shafts are completely enclosed

until the 39th floor.

All he has around him for more than a dozen floors

are solid walls.

With all avenues exhausted, a burning thirst in his throat,

and hunger pangs in his stomach,

Nicholas White surrendered to his fate.

Nicholas: At one point, it did move me a bit

that I thought, wow.

At that point, I've sort of given up,

sort of given up.

And I can't walk around anymore.

I can't yell anymore.

Maybe even I can't take the bell anymore.

I'm just done. You win.

Narrator: Maybe he would be discovered on Monday,

barely alive.

Or perhaps the building maintenance work

would keep him sealed in there all week.

♪

Then suddenly, a voice crackled through the intercom.

Nicholas: "Is there someone in there?"

I jumped up, I heard the whole sentence,

and I said, "Yes, there is!"

Narrator: Nicholas explained his story

and, with the help of engineers,

was able to guide the elevator down to the lobby.

Nicholas: There was some tinkering done

by a maintenance worker and a combination of buttons,

and I felt the wind change its strength,

and I opened the doors.

I happened to be a little bit

below the lobby.

I saw the lobby and I popped out.

Narrator: When he emerged, it was Sunday afternoon.

His ride in the express elevator

had lasted 41 hours.

Nicholas White was physically unharmed by his ordeal,

but nonetheless permanently changed.

♪

The Repubblica metro station in the eternal city of Rome

is the scene of accident number 8 on our list.

♪ Sunny sky is blue ♪

Narrator: The metro system in Italy's bustling capital

is one of the busiest in Europe,

carrying more than 800,000 people every day.

The A-Line accounts for more than half of them.

So if you're at Repubblica at rush hour,

just one stop short of the central terminus,

you're going to be around a lot of people.

♪

It was here on October 23, 2018,

that a group of football fans

took a ride they would never forget.

That evening, local heroes AS Roma

were hosting Russia's CSKA Moscow

in the group stages of Europe's premier competition,

the Champions League.

Hundreds of Muscovites made the 3,000-kilometre journey

to support their heroes at one of the game's

most famous stadiums, the Stadio Olimpico,

just on the outskirts of central Rome.

They are preparing to make the journey to the stadium

from Repubblica Station.

Everything seemed normal as they descended

to the platforms from street level.

♪

Then, without warning,

the escalator went out of control,

accelerating to several times its usual speed.

Like dominoes, the passengers were thrown

to the ground at the bottom.

Some riders, close to the top,

scrambled to jump onto the central barrier,

but many simply couldn't,

and were thrown on top of their fellow fans.

The calamity lasted just a few seconds,

but in that time, more than 20 passengers

had piled onto one another.

Emergency services arrived quickly.

As rescuers pulled the dazed victims from the pile,

it became clear that some closer to the bottom

had suffered traumatic injuries

and must receive medical treatment directly on site.

♪

The steps at the bottom of the escalator had collapsed,

creating jagged metal traps that caught some victims

in a vice-like grip.

It took fire crews more than an hour

to free all the passengers.

And while most were just shaken

and perhaps bruised by the encounter,

seven were taken to the hospital

and one had his foot amputated.

Authorities initially blamed the rowdy fans for the disaster,

claiming that by jumping up and down on the escalator,

they caused it to malfunction.

However, once footage of the accident was released,

it was clear that this was not the case.

The investigation ultimately revealed that the failure

was caused by poorly maintained and outdated equipment.

That evening, AS Roma won the match 3-0.

It was a match to forget for CSKA Moscow fans,

but an Italian adventure they will remember forever.

♪

For our 7th disaster, we return

to the city of skyscrapers, New York.

♪ Check it out ♪

♪ Let me begin at the beginning of time ♪

Narrator: Some experts believe that without elevators,

the tallest buildings in the world

would never pass 20 storeys.

Today, the fastest express elevators

have allowed architects to build buildings

more than 100 storeys high.

The lofty heights of buildings in the Big Apple

utilize more than 80,000 elevators,

which make more than 35 million passenger trips per day.

With numbers that high,

accidents are statistically inevitable.

And one particularly tragic incident

occurred at 8:15 a.m. on August 22, 2019.

It was a standard Thursday morning for Samuel Waisbren,

a 30-year-old software salesman.

He took his usual morning elevator ride from his apartment

in the 23-storey Manhattan Promenade Tower

down to the lobby,

and was just stepping out when disaster struck.

(Dramatic music)

♪

♪

♪

Without warning, the car suddenly

plunged to the basement.

Samuel, caught between the car and the lobby floor,

was killed instantly as the elevator crushed him,

causing massive blunt force trauma to his head and neck,

as well as mechanical asphyxiation.

The three passengers still in the car were unhurt,

as were those in the lobby,

but all suffered the incredible trauma

of witnessing the event close up.

You can see the passenger ahead of Samuel

exit just as the car begins to fall

with the door still open.

Instinctively, Samuel grabs the wall

and tries to escape the plunging elevator,

but it happens too fast.

♪

The emergency services are quick to respond,

but there is nothing they can do.

Samuel is pronounced dead at the scene.

♪

As the news of the tragedy spreads,

so do disturbing reports that the building

has heard complaints about the elevator for years.

Tenants stated that the cars would often shake,

occasionally stop between floors,

and that the doors could open in transit.

The responsibility of monitoring New York's elevators

and ensuring their safety

falls to the Department of Buildings.

Their regulations state that every passenger elevator

must be inspected twice a year.

That's over 120,000 annual inspections,

or nearly 500 a day.

In May 2019, inspectors had issued a citation and fine

to the owners of Manhattan Promenade Tower

over another elevator in the building.

A mechanism designed to prevent doors opening between floors

was faulty and may have even been tampered with.

At an inspection just three weeks prior to the accident,

inspectors had found no issues

with the elevator Samuel was riding.

This terrible accident from August 22, 2019,

shows how rigorous elevator maintenance

is the only way to prevent such a disaster

from happening again.

♪

From the elevator capital of the world

to the escalator capital,

at 6, we head to China.

♪

With a rapidly urbanizing population

approaching 1.5 billion,

China is moving up, literally.

As Chinese cities reach for the skies,

their escalator and elevator installations have also climbed.

Just under half of all the world's elevators and escalators

operate in China.

That's over 11 million.

In 2023, China installed two out of three

of all the world's new escalators.

With numbers that high,

numerous incidents were to be expected.

But studies have shown that the volume of misadventures

is disproportionately high.

In other words, taking an escalator in China

is more dangerous than in other countries.

Years of incidents in hotels, subways and shopping malls

have often made escalator riding in China front page news,

with some people claiming that corruption and neglect

have put the public at risk.

An incident from 2015 suggests this might be true.

It was Sunday, July 26th, when Xiang Liujuan

was at the Anliang department store in Jingzhou

with her two-year-old son.

Like any other trip to the mall,

they freely moved between floors using the escalator system.

But this was to be no ordinary trip.

♪

♪

As Xiang and her son reached the top of the escalator,

a panel on the floor suddenly gave way beneath them.

With no thought for her own safety,

Xiang thrust her son into the arms of a nearby staff member

who carried him to safety,

while another tried to pull his mother free.

Their attempts lasted mere seconds

as she slipped from their grasp

and was drawn into the mechanical maw of the escalator.

♪

♪

♪

Emergency services raced to the scene,

but it took them four hours to reach Xiang.

She had become entangled in the escalator's gears

and crushed to death.

It was soon revealed that staff members

had already identified the problem with the loose plate

before the accident,

having almost fallen themselves.

A maintenance worker had forgotten

to bolt it back into place earlier that day.

They had rushed to tell management,

who failed to immediately take the escalator out of service.

Only minutes later, Xiang took her fateful steps onto it.

The staff at the top tried to warn her

that there was a problem, but she misunderstood

and stepped over the safe panel,

only to fall through the loose one.

Her last act on Earth was to save her son's life.

♪

It was an entirely preventable tragedy

and emblematic of failings in the enforcement

of China's health and safety regulations.

♪

(Screams and gasps)

We remain in China for number 5 on our list,

featuring a kind of elevator that most of us will never use.

Most deadly elevator incidents

involve industrial lifting equipment.

Elevators in mine shafts and on construction sites

account for more than 90% of all elevator deaths.

But there's also another kind of industrial lift

that can expose its users to danger.

Window cleaning hoists.

♪

An elevator by another name,

these platforms operate on the same principle.

Suspended from the roof,

the cradle moves as the motors reel in

or release the steel cables,

guiding it steadily along the building's face.

The pulleys redirect the tension,

keeping the platform balanced and level

so it can climb or descend smoothly,

carrying hardy souls to clean glass

hundreds of metres in the air.

♪

Unfortunately, numerous accidents involving

this type of elevator occurs every year.

(Screams and gasps)

Faced with even medium-strength winds,

these platforms can act like sails

and swing wildly out of control.

♪

That's what happened on May 10, 2021, in Wuhan, China.

(Man speaking Chinese)

♪

On that day, two maintenance workers

began their cleaning shift

on a 70-metre office building in the city

when the wind suddenly and dramatically picked up.

(Man shouting in Chinese)

They were at the 17th floor when winds,

measured at a gale force of 10,

upwards of 85 kilometres per hour,

caught their platform and sent them sailing.

For 20 minutes, the two helpless men

were thrown tens of metres

out from the side of the building

and then slammed back into it.

There was nothing they or anyone else could do

to stabilize the hoist.

They were at nature's mercy.

By the time it was brought under control,

they had slammed into the building

dozens of times at high speeds.

♪

Both men succumbed to their injuries.

(Man shouting in Chinese)

Their terrifying situation isn't unique,

but most cleaners have been fortunate enough

to escape with their lives.

A combination of factors

conspires to make these platforms so dangerous.

♪

Streets lined with tall buildings create a canyon,

channelling the wind horizontally

and increasing its speed.

Add to that a downdraft, where wind hitting the buildings

is deflected toward the street.

Then there's vortex shedding,

where the sharp edges of the buildings

create spinning vortices

which can destabilize anything caught near them.

All this fast-moving, unstable air

forces faster winds between the building

and the window washing hoist.

That creates the Venturi effect,

causing a pressure drop as the air tries to pass through

a narrower gap, which further increases the wind speed.

The hoist acts like the wing of a plane.

The faster wind between the hoist and the building

flings the apparatus outwards.

With no stabilizing force from above,

it can swing wildly until the wind dies down.

All the passengers can do is hold on and hope.

In Wuhan, the building supervisor

was questioned about why the cleaners ventured out

when winds of twice the permitted speed

had been forecast.

He claimed that the cleaners were warned

and he was not prosecuted.

Remember the dangers window washers face

the next time you admire a spotless 40th floor view.

♪

♪

For many of us, riding an elevator

is just a part of our everyday working lives.

That was the case for the victims

of the number 4 disaster on our list,

which happened on the Indonesian paradise island of Bali

on September 1, 2023.

♪

The luxurious Ayuterra Resort Hotel

in Ubud in central Bali

is stunningly situated on the side

of one of the island's many steep ravines.

For the staff to move quickly and efficiently between floors,

they use a special kind of lift called an incline elevator.

Like standard vertical elevators,

they move by a system of cables and pulleys,

but the cars travel at an angle and are on wheels,

like a miniature version of a funicular.

The incline elevator at Ayuterra

is much smaller in scale.

It spans just 60 metres

at an approximately 35-degree angle,

and the single car carries just six passengers.

But when it lost control,

the results were just as disastrous.

♪

At around 1:00 p.m. on September 1, 2023,

five staff boarded the elevator

to the upper floor guests' residences.

♪

About 20 metres into the ride,

something went catastrophically wrong.

♪

♪

The cable pulling the elevator snapped,

and the car careened down the track,

gaining speed as it went.

It reached the bottom with such force

that it smashed through the guardrails and ceiling

and flew into the ravine 100 metres below.

♪

♪

Emergency workers raced to the rescue.

And once they had made the challenging descent,

they had found a scene of twisted metal and bodies.

Two of the workers had been killed on impact.

The other three were painstakingly carried

up the steep sides of the ravine

and rushed to the hospital.

But sadly, all three succumbed to their injuries.

All were between 19 and 24 years old.

♪

♪

The news sent shockwaves around the small island

and generated negative headlines

that an area dependent on tourism can ill afford.

Meanwhile, an entire community was grieving

the loss of five young people, and demanding answers.

Investigators discovered that the elevator

was operating on only one steel cable, or sling,

instead of the recommended three cables.

An engineer claimed that the owners of the hotel

had asked for two of the cables to be removed

to reduce maintenance costs.

The owners denied these claims.

That single cable should have been strong enough

to handle the weight of the full lift,

but with no backup, there was no room for error.

The elevator was fitted with an emergency brake,

but investigators couldn't discern how it malfunctioned.

In April 2024,

the contractor who fitted and operated the lift

was convicted of negligent manslaughter

for removing the two cables.

He was sent to prison for 18 months.

The owner of the resort, who allegedly ordered

the removal of the cables,

was placed under house arrest.

His trial was delayed in part by claims

he suffered PTSD from the disaster.

In June 2024, he was sentenced to one year in prison.

The families of the five young people

killed in this avoidable tragedy

had little choice but to accept financial settlements

from the resort owners.

And as followers of the Balinese Hinduism,

they entrusted the karmic forces of the universe

to ensure justice would be served.

♪

You don't always have to be riding an escalator

to be hurt by one,

as demonstrated by our 3rd ranked tragedy

that took place at London's King's Cross train station

in 1987.

Reporter: It was the end of London's rush hour,

but still thousands were streaming through King's Cross

when a discarded match started the inferno.

A living nightmare ensued.

Narrator: Smoking had been banned on the underground

some years prior,

but many commuters simply ignored the regulations.

At around 7:30 p.m.

on the evening of November 18, 1987,

one of those passengers unwittingly

started a catastrophic fire.

It caught beneath an escalator to the underground station.

Reporter: The discarded cigarette set fire

to grease and fluff under the wooden panels

of escalator number four.

(Sirens wailing)

Narrator: The fire was small and spotted quickly.

Within 10 minutes, the London Fire Brigade

was on site, and transit staff

were evacuating the station via other escalators.

Man: When I was about halfway up that escalator,

the fire spread suddenly and dramatically,

and a sheet of flame came across,

from across the top of the escalator,

filling the whole of the space

at the top of the escalator right up to the ceiling.

Narrator: If the firefighters had brought equipment with them,

they may have ended the incident there and then.

But as they left to retrieve their equipment,

the fire took hold.

By 7:42 p.m., the entire escalator was ablaze,

and superheated gas was filling the escalator shaft.

As firefighters battled to control the blaze,

dozens of layers of flammable paint on the ceiling above them

were absorbing tremendous amounts of heat.

At 7:45 p.m., just 15 minutes

after the fire was first spotted,

the paint on the ceiling, the other escalators,

and the air in the shaft

spontaneously exploded into a fireball

called a "flashover."

Jets of flame and scorching black smoke

flooded the ticket hall above, killing or injuring dozens

who had not yet had time to be evacuated.

The airflow from the underground lines

made the station an efficient furnace.

Man 2: The scene was just chaos.

There was smoke billowing out of the exits.

There was firemen surrounding a man on the ground,

his face completely blackened.

They had electrocardio, electric shock treatment,

trying to bring him back to life.

They were shouting, "Stand back, stand back!"

And three times they tried this, but there was no response.

Narrator: As the fire raged,

staff and passengers fled in terror.

For many, however, it was already too late.

♪

It took more than 100 firefighters

until 1:46 in the morning

to bring the blaze under control.

By then, 31 people were dead

and 100 more had been sent to the hospital,

including many of the firefighters

who described a scene from hell.

♪

5th of July, 2025, Prague, Czech Republic.

A hauntingly similar incident that perfectly illustrates

how quickly flames can take hold.

On that evening, a group of young men

were travelling up the metal escalators

at the Old Town's metro station

when one of them dropped a burning object.

Still aflame, it fell through the steps of the escalator

combined with the grease and debris.

It almost immediately caught fire.

As passengers desperately scrambled

back down the escalator to escape the flames,

smoke began to rise through the gaps in the steps.

It took less than a minute for the ticket hall above

to be filled with thick white smoke.

♪

Fortunately, nobody was injured.

But the event serves as a reminder

that any small fire underground

can become catastrophic in mere moments.

♪

Reporter: Mrs. Thatcher arrived at King's Cross station

a few moments ago to shake hands with the men

who fought the blaze through the night.

Narrator: In 1987, the public inquiry

that followed the King's Cross disaster

found that underground train staff

were insufficiently trained in fire prevention.

Reporter: She was clearly shocked by what she'd seen,

saying the scale of the tragedy was beyond comprehension.

Narrator: If they had known how to use

the station's water fog system,

tragedy could have been avoided.

It also noted that authorities had been warned

that the old paint on the ceiling was a fire hazard.

Not only was it highly flammable,

but on combustion, it released deadly toxins.

The inquiry demanded 157 changes

to London's underground train operations.

These modifications have served to prevent

similar tragic events,

but came too late for the 31 victims.

♪

At number 2, we head to New York

for a different look

at one of the most famous disasters in modern history.

♪

(Rumbling, gasping)

♪

(Screaming)

We all know the terrible story of the terrorist attacks

on New York's World Trade Centers

on September 11, 2001.

It's an indelible part of our past.

But one aspect of the story is not often told:

the story of the people in the elevators.

♪

While the world watched in horror

as workers tried to escape the doomed towers,

an estimated 200 people

were riding in elevators at the time

and had absolutely no idea

what was happening all around them.

Remarkably, there was precedent for surviving

an almost identical scenario in New York City.

Reporter: Tragedy in New York, when a Mitchell bomber

crashed at 200 miles an hour

into the giant Empire State Building.

Narrator: On July 28, 1945,

the pilot of a B-25 bomber on a routine flight

between nearby Air Force bases

became disoriented in thick fog.

He turned the wrong way and smashed the plane

into the 78th floor of the Empire State Building...

...killing all on board and 11 inside the building.

Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver

had already survived her elevator car

being engulfed by flames from the explosive impact.

When she boarded a second car to escape to the lobby,

she had no idea the cables had been shredded by the disaster.

When they snapped, the car fell from the 75th floor

all the way down to the basement,

a free fall of nearly 300 metres.

On impact, she broke her pelvis, back, and neck,

but survived this incredible fall,

thanks to the cushioning effect of the air in the shaft.

Woman: Oh my God.

Narrator: None of the passengers on September 11th

would be as fortunate as Betty.

Each World Trade Center tower had 99 elevators

in a customized configuration called Sky Lobbies.

Basically, it means that the two 110-storey high-rises

each operated like three smaller buildings

stacked on top of one another.

So, if you wanted to go to the 58th floor,

you would take the express to the 44th

and then change for a local elevator.

It was an elegant solution that provided 24 kilometres

of elevator shafts in half the floor space,

while enabling about 190,000 people

to move up and down the towers every day

without ever waiting longer

than a minute or two for an elevator.

(Loud booming)

The elevators were in constant use.

So when the first plane hit the North Tower at 8:46 a.m.

and plowed through the central column of the building,

it disabled most of the 99 cars, trapping those inside.

Those unlucky enough to be trapped above the impact

were now doomed.

Below the impact zone,

passengers had a variety of experiences.

Some were killed almost immediately.

The strength of the impact severed the cables

and warped the columns

that enabled the emergency brakes.

They may have plunged to their deaths.

Even those fortunate enough to be in cars

whose doors opened were not safe,

as the shafts transmitted the powers of the explosion

through the building.

Survivors reported their elevators

being consumed by fire.

Those closest to the doors escaped,

but most on board were killed.

In some cars,

the emergency systems for elevators still worked,

and the cars automatically descended to their lowest floor.

But even then, many doors didn't open

because the power was out.

Survivors revealed that passengers were aware

something serious was happening.

The elevator cars shook.

They heard explosions.

They knew this was no ordinary malfunction.

In the South Tower, many workers on the upper levels

fled to the Sky Lobbies after having seen

what had happened to the North Tower.

But those on the 78th floor could never have known

that they were in the impact zone

for the second plane.

♪

(Screaming)

In the two towers, only 12 people

in the 20 express elevators survived.

The rest were either killed by the impact,

the fireballs that followed,

or were trapped until the buildings

collapsed upon them.

(Horns honking)

♪

Fortune alone seemed to determine

who survived their elevator ride.

Chris Young, who was stuck alone in an elevator

in the lobby of the North Tower,

was one of the last miraculous survivors.

He had been patiently awaiting rescue,

but when the South Tower collapsed,

he knew he had to move.

His car was close enough to the lobby floor

that the elevator safety systems that prevent passengers

from opening the doors from the inside

were no longer engaged.

He managed to pry the doors open,

which must have seemed like the gates of hell.

He escaped the collapse of the North Tower

with less than a minute to spare.

(Screaming)

He was one of only 21 people we know

who survived the World Trade Center elevators.

It's estimated that those cars became tombs

for at least 200 souls

who experienced a very different tragedy

than so many others that day.

♪

Our final tragic disaster

takes us to Orkney in South Africa

and to the deadly danger posed by mine elevators.

For nearly 200 years,

elevators have been crucial to mining,

enabling miners to go deep into the ground

quickly and efficiently.

They operate much like the everyday elevators

seen in commercial and residential buildings,

albeit with exposed machinery.

A large motor-driven sheave, or grooved wheel,

raises and lowers the elevator cage

using strong steel ropes attached at one end to the car,

and to the other to a counterweight.

Some of these cages are double-decker,

often carrying dozens of men at a time.

When everything works smoothly,

it is a swift, if uncomfortable journey

for those beginning or ending their shifts.

But the incredible depths involved,

the unpredictable nature of mining,

and the lack of safety features

found on skyscraper elevators

add an element of danger to every journey.

A fall of just 10 metres

can be enough to kill passengers.

Mine elevators operate in shafts

with depths of between hundreds

and sometimes over a thousand metres.

As a result, hundreds of miners

have been the victims of elevator accidents.

Of the 15 elevator accidents that have claimed

10 or more victims,

nine have been at mining sites.

From gas explosions severing cables

to the sudden collapse of the sheave construction,

mechanical failures underground

have sent helpless miners plummeting to their deaths

at mine sites all around the world.

No country has suffered more of these disasters

or more victims than South Africa.

And no other disaster has come close

to the number 1 on our list, Vaal Reefs.

♪

The number two shaft at the Vaal Reefs gold mine

is 2,130 metres deep,

the equivalent of four World Trade Centers

stacked on top of one another.

The mine operates at several levels,

with tunnels radiating from the deep central shaft.

As a shift was ending on the early evening

of May 10, 1995,

104 miners boarded the double-decker cage elevator

at level 62.

At the same time, an underground locomotive operator

on level 56, almost 200 metres above them,

lost control of his vehicle.

The failsafe engine cutoff didn't work.

And as the train careened towards the central shaft,

the driver had little choice but to jump to safety.

The 12-tonne machine blasted through

the protective steel barrier at the shaft entrance

and plummeted into the darkness.

After less than 100 metres,

it landed onto the roof of the ascending elevator.

The force of the impact detached the hook

that connects the cable to the elevator car.

The whole mass went into freefall

and dropped more than 400 metres

to the floor of the mine.

The speed of the elevator,

combined with the weight of the elevator and the locomotive,

doomed everyone on board.

Man: Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot describe

what I have seen today.

The people are squashed in such a manner

that that type of accident in my life,

even in (Unclear), I have never seen such.

Narrator: It was more like the scene

of an explosion than a crash

and they knew from the start

this was not a rescue effort,

but a body recovery.

Reporter: Do you have a casualty figure at this stage?

At this stage, we know we brought up two deceased

and we've just managed to get to another four.

We expect the casualty figure

to be in the region of close to 100.

Narrator: A crew of more than 60

worked around the clock in exhausting conditions

with the heat 2,000 metres down

frequently reaching 50 degrees Celsius.

It took over a week to clear all the bodies.

Mass funerals were held.

(Sombre singing)

It was a devastating period for a community

dependent on the mine.

♪

The investigation found blatant safety failures.

Not the least of which was the faulty detaching hook.

Had it not failed, the cable should have had

the elasticity to withstand the impact

and saved miners' lives.

Investigators agreed and recommended

that the mine owners be prosecuted

for culpable homicide.

But nobody ever stood trial.

The blame should be placed before the mine bosses.

Narrator: The company promised that lessons had been learned

and safety measures would be put in place.

With 104 deaths,

this was the deadliest elevator accident in history.

When I was about halfway up that escalator,

the fire spread suddenly and dramatically.

(Hard rock music)

Narrator: The terrifying incidents on this list

have covered everything from personal tragedies

to national disasters.

They are especially frightening

because elevators and escalators

are such a common part of our lives.

We think of them as helpful tools of modern life,

not potential death traps.

As we have seen, just like any form of transport,

they can put us on the fast track to tragedy

if they aren't maintained.

Although some people get injured

and a few even get killed,

it's important to remember that, statistically,

those are incredibly rare events.

So keep on travelling vertically,

but if something does go wrong,

follow the instructions and always hold the handrail.

♪