CHICAGO _ Firefighters had a pretty good idea how they would rescue the six people trapped in an elevator at the former John Hancock Center early Friday. But they had to find the elevator first.
The express elevator was stuck somewhere between the 95th floor and the lobby of Chicago's fourth-tallest building, one of several cables holding it broken. It was in a "blind shaft" with no openings firefighters could use to inspect the elevator or reach the people, among them tourists from Mexico, who had taken it from the Signature Room shortly after midnight.
It would take nearly three hours to safely rescue them.
The first crews on the scene checked the building's electronic system, which gave them "a rough idea" of where the elevator was _ somewhere near the 11th floor of a parking garage, according to Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford. They drilled a small hole in the concrete wall and inserted a tiny camera on a "goose neck" wire to look around and find exactly where it was, Langford said. "Once they did that, they knew which walls to break."
Firefighters cut open a hole about 5 feet by 5 feet. They could see the top half of the elevator.
"They put struts up to make sure it can't drop anymore, if anything were to happen," Langford said. "Once they had the shoring and bracings in, they forced the elevator door open and placed a small ladder into the elevator."
One firefighter went down first, checked the people and helped them up the ladder and through the door. One person was suffering from anxiety from being in a confined space, but there were no serious injuries, Langford said.
"We don't like to have to go through walls unless it's absolutely necessary," Langford said. "The only other way to get to the elevator would have been ropes from the 97th floor and that would not be safe. We don't come down like Batman so we must go through the wall."
The elevator was last inspected in July, according to city Buildings Department spokesman Gregg Cunningham, who said the cause of the malfunction remained under investigation. He said a "hoist rope," or cable, connected to elevator car 2 failed shortly after midnight.
"That rope is one of several that are connected to the elevator, and, even with this one failing, there's a redundancy in place," Cunningham said. "Specifics of how it failed, and what type of failure, is still under investigation."
The elevator and two others next to it will be closed to the public until repairs are made and the maintenance company figures out what happened. Those elevators share a "common hoist way space," Cunningham said. "It has to be determined that it's safe to operate these other adjacent cars."
Two of the passengers were Northwestern University law students, who had just ridden up to the Signature Lounge for the first time and been turned away because it was a few minutes past closing time.
On the return trip, the elevators started going down faster than they were expecting.
"It was really bumpy, it felt like a flight into Chicago," said one of the law students, who did not want their names used. "Stuff from the ceiling started falling down. ... It just felt like it was a lot of dust, like white dust."
Strangers just seconds before, everyone on the elevator "started freaking out," she said. Some people screamed. Some people cried. Someone pressed the elevator's emergency call button.
After about 45 minutes, when the fire department got involved, the students realized the solution was to going to be simple. Firefighters kept the group looped into their progress through the speaker.
"They couldn't find us in the elevator," the student said, adding it felt like they had fallen 84 floors.
The students and tourists started introducing themselves, but they were in a state of panic, so they mostly just talked to the fire department, the student said. Someone led a prayer circle. There were no snacks or water, but the lack of a bathroom didn't become an issue either, the student said.
"We just kind of got to know where everyone was from."
The students said they got out around 2:50 a.m.
"It felt great to get out and tell everyone we were safe, we could go to sleep," the student said.
"It was a good lesson to never go out (she joked). Elevators have their ups and downs but it all turned out OK."
As the rescue unfolded, friends of others trapped in the elevator sat on the polished floor with their backs to the wall, their heads leaning down or buried in phones. Nash Mena and Luis Vazquez, from Mexico City, had been in Chicago for about a week, staying at the Loews Hotel about a mile away. They were messaging two of their friends in the elevator.
They had all been at the Signature Room bar on the 95th floor _ "It's a beautiful view" _ and had taken separate elevators down, Vazquez said. "They were the last ones to come back."
Usually the ride down is fast, descending dozens of floors in a matter of seconds. Seconds after his friends' elevator took off, they heard a "bang," Vazquez said. They messaged him on WhatsApp.
Around 1:15 a.m., building employees told people sitting by the elevators they couldn't wait there anymore and ushered them into the lobby. "This is crazy," said a woman in a suit, shaking her head as she walked through.
Vazquez, a civil engineer, said he couldn't believe the situation that was playing out in one of the most notable buildings in the country.
"This is the second-most important building in Chicago? And this is the third-most important city in the United States?" he said. "In the 98 floors, they have no place to open any door? That is the craziest thing."
Dissatisfied with initial help from building personnel, who "weren't doing much," Vazquez said they called 911 themselves.
Shortly before 3 a.m., word rippled through the lobby that the group would soon be reunited. Their friends gathered outside the elevator banks, lining a pathway. When the first of the rescue crews emerged from the elevators, the crowd clapped loudly and continued applauding as firefighters walked though carrying sledgehammers, long metal planks, rope and other tools.
The friends realized the six were being led out the north entrance and walked through the building to meet them. The group hugged and laughed on the sidewalk until a private bus arrived to take them to their hotel. Those rescued needed to rest before they were ready to talk about their experience, friends said.
Building security repeatedly intervened when they saw reporters talking to guests in the lobby and on the sidewalk outside. When firefighters were about to give a televised news conference on the sidewalk, an employee told the group to get off the property. They moved to the public street, setting up again in front of a parked Chicago police car.
