Dubai tower elevator traps people on 124th floor

Dubai tower shut after visitors stuck in elevator

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Visitors on the observation deck of the world's tallest tower heard a loud boom, then saw dust that looked like smoke seeping through a crack in an elevator door 124 floors above the ground. The 15 people inside were trapped for 45 frightening minutes until rescuers managed to pry open the doors.
Because the elevator was apparently stuck between floors, rescuers had to drop a ladder into the shaft so those inside could crawl out. On the observation deck, about 60 more people were stranded and some began to panic.

Shortly after the drama unfolded on Saturday evening, the half-mile-high Burj Khalifa that was supposed to be one of Dubai's proudest achievements shut down to the public just a month after its grandiose opening. It was the latest embarrassment for the once-booming Gulf city-state that is now mired in a deep financial crisis.

http://www.ajc.com/business/dubai-tower-shut-after-294548.html

one wonders if there wasn't a little monkeywrenching going along with all the mistakes that exhausted, dehydrated, underfed workers are always going to make.

(in this case underpaying laborers) - it ends up costing you at least twice as much ('cheap' cars that have to be replaced once per year, that sort of thing) as it would have cost you if you had just paid for good quality in the first place.

There's a huge difference between economy and false economy and that is one of life's great lessons.

While that five dollar pair of shoes from China might look just as good as the ten dollar pair made in a better labor market, you'll replace those five dollar shoes three times during what would have been the lifespan of that ten dollar pair. That's where the line is.

Likewise that is usually the difference between an expensive union plumber or electrician and somebody's fly by night brother in law. You will likely have to hire the union guy to fix his mistakes, usually sooner rather than later.

Economy is buying sturdy classics instead of expensive, name brand, fashion driven stuff. Economy is avoiding fads and going for longevity. Economy is focusing on what you need instead of what you want.

False economy is driving the race to the bottom.

...so that we may make a name for ourselves ... " Genesis 11:4

Sometimes the Bible DOES have the pithy quote.

If that's the case, we live in a world of embarrassment. :shrug:

Have lavish parties for the "grandiose" opening, spout stuff like "state of the art" and brag about how much it cost, how tall it is, etc. Bigger, better, faster, more...

Ultra-luxury resort - every guest treated like a Saudi oil sheik. This new Burj Dubai tower was supposed to replace the Burj Al-Arab as "Dubai", at least in the popular imagination.

Since those plans were unveiled, Dubai World defaulted, and the building is a big empty white elephant with an elevator that doesn't work, lol. I'm laughing just thinking about it.

before the brakes kicked in.

I'm glad I wasn't on that elevator, and I'm glad no one was hurt.

(I'm also glad the brake wasn't made by Toyota!)

I know the contracts would have all been signed during the reign of the corrupt evil BushCo Regime.

he went right through a patform of plywood & 4X6's on the 30th floor, his arm was on the landing on the 17th floor...and the rest of him was just a pile of goop at the bottom of the shaft.

he didn't have his safety harness attached, reached for a tool, and the cart he was working in upended and dumped him out.

prevent sudden impact - happened in the Empire State Building a couple years ago, IIRC.

the cars have brakes that kick in if it starts to freefall.

elisha otis designed the first such brakes.

just to make sure I'm not going senile, and turns out, others also recall that event (though I recalled that the passengers had NOT been seriously injured, so that's where our memories divurge):

>>As far as I know which is reading it in Ripley's believe it or not or similar book there has never actually been a fatality from a free fall elevator accident.

Wires must break (all of them) arrestor shoes on side of life must fail and finally the hydraulic rams at the bottom which can absorb a lot of the free fall speed must fail.

I know a lift fell from a very high floor on the empire state building many many years ago but even then the sole passenger survived because of the rams. She was critically injured though. <<

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00BbZX

i think it was from 6 stories up- and the car was completely demolished.
i'm not familiar with the system they have in the empire state building- but in most high rises- if the cables go, and the brakes fail- you're out of luck.
in a lot of low-rise buildings, the elevators don't have cables, but are run by a large hydraulic ram- like in the boom of a mobile crane.

You can just sense it as you walk in to take an elevator to an upper floor - it's clearly a well-designed building which the owners have taken care of over the years. I don't know if it's the art nouveau flourishes or what, but it's not like any other building I've ever been in, that I can think of.