I had been meaning to do a search on “if I could will myself to jump while inside a free falling elevator just before it crashes to the ground, what will happen? Will I survive?” Was that a premonition? It’s irrelevant now. The fact that I didn’t despite meaning to made me want to strangle myself! Why didn’t I?! WHY?!
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I was on my way down the office for a smoke. That’s about 25 storeys above the ground plus 3 more basement parking levels. Two other passengers were with me inside the elevator car. Two middle-aged women.
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Then it happened.
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As the elevator floor counter read third floor, I felt something inexplicably weird, like my body’s weightlessness trip was abruptly cut short. The feeling was horrible. In a heartbeat, the thought that the car was going in for a dive aped me shitless. There was a jolt, you see, and the floor had not moved from the third floor. Then I felt the car slowly inch its way down with jagged short stops. My heart was racing. I was frantic. What am I to do? Fucking what?! I could already hear voices from those waiting at the ground floor lobby but that did not do anything to calm my nerves. Fucking A, we’re gonna fall and I wish I’d quit smoking so I wouldn’t have had the urge to go down!
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I managed to look calm, having somewhat accepted that my fate is sealed, as I and the two ladies wait for the inevitable. Fuck, I want redemption! Please make me see even a faint glimmer of hope!
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I just found out that my initial instinct to jump a split-second before the crash was stupid. In a forum I stumbled upon (Physics Forums though here), they have established that in order for this to work, you should be able to time your jump at a precise moment before impact. But you still have no way of knowing when the right moment is! In the highly unlikely event that you make perfect timing, the contact of the speeding car with the ground could still make the sides and the top of the car fold in on you. Double ouch!
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Popular Mechanics, quoting The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, suggests that although still arguable, it is best to lay flat on the elevator floor while making sure that your head is protected (through here).
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Other people, however, suggest that one should lie down on your side in a fetal position on the floor so you could protect both your head and your chest because the impact may severely damage your internal organs should you be positioned otherwise. It makes sense since curling up, when done correctly, could protect your rib cage and your head all at one time.
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It was a really stressful experience, mind you.
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Thankfully, the elevator doors opened on the ground floor lobby about 10 seconds later. This experience has just taken over the top spot in the Longest 10 Seconds of My Life, EVER record. My hands were shaking!
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And the first thing I did? I said FUCKIN’ FREAKY and lit a smoke.
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Twitter Updates
9 August 2007 at 10:43 am
HOLY CRAP!
9 August 2007 at 12:32 pm
wtf!!!! anobaaaaaa… you gotta be effin kiddin me. grabe.
9 August 2007 at 12:57 pm
Another option by Ryder from my multiply contacts: “i saw in the axn show ‘worst case scenario’ that jumping isn’t going to help things and will injure you more like you said in your site. the recommended position is stay close to a sidewall, hold on to a rail, and bend your knees. they say it’s the safest position on a freefalling elevator…”
9 August 2007 at 12:58 pm
Healthy option by nnneng from my multiply contacts: “i think the momentum will be totally against the jump, eh. like super double the effort plus it won’t be that high. so just take the stairs, diba?”
9 August 2007 at 12:59 pm
chexed, this really happened. I won’t take that middle car ever again!
9 August 2007 at 3:20 pm
second life? hehe
The worst elevator experience I’ve had was when I was stuck in between floors for 2 hours with 7 other people. Haha
9 August 2007 at 3:26 pm
By you “haha,” I’d assume you enjoyed the experience, not? You know, “experience?”
9 August 2007 at 5:52 pm
This comment will put it in better context:
1. It happened on my 16th birthday.
2. It was 2 days after my grandfather died. I was in the hospital when he passed away. And yeah, we were close.
3. Peripheral issue: a close friend died 2 days later. Actually, he was one of the people with me in the elevator.
It was a fucked up week, basically.
Now, why the hell did I say HAHA? :|
9 August 2007 at 6:25 pm
Anyone’s entitled to a HAHA when remembering their sweet-sixteenth birthday, notwithstanding bad events concurrently happening that very day. Sweet Sixteens are sacred in some cultures as it is often looked at as the age where an adolescent matures from consent and spirituality. By some cultures I mean OUR culture just so my argument could be in context.
9 August 2007 at 8:14 pm
they actually had this sort of thing done in myth busters.
the jumping before impact? totally myth.
9 August 2007 at 8:39 pm
I’ve talked with two others who’d also jump on impulse. I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem stupid enough in theory to not work in the real world. But it IS a stupid thing to do. Lesson learned.
9 August 2007 at 9:54 pm
oooooh… interesting entry. that definitely caught my attention. glad you survived! :D *just hopping around*
10 August 2007 at 2:12 pm
I didn’t. I’m writing from the afterlife. If you read carefully and imagine my voice inside your head, you’ll notice a faint and distant echo (cho cho cho). That’s the afterlife effect.
10 August 2007 at 4:53 pm
nakakaloka ang experience na yun fritz! while reading your blog, it was as if i was with you during those uncertain moments!
nice blog… keep writin’
10 August 2007 at 5:07 pm
Munitik nako maihi kamo! hehehe. Thanks jojo!
11 August 2007 at 1:57 am
^ Wa poise! I bet the incident scared the model wits out of you.
Kamusta naman kasi yun noh?!
11 August 2007 at 2:27 am
Fucking A, we’re gonna fall and I wish I’d quit smoking so I wouldn’t have had the urge to go down!
So typical hahahaha
11 August 2007 at 2:54 am
Helga and steel, paguumpugin ko kayo, sige! Anyway, we go to that thing I brought up at TMB, ok? Take a leave you guys! One thought that came to me while “falling” was, how much in insurance proceeds do my parentals get? I fished out the virtual calculator running on the deca core processor that’s my brain. What a rich son-less couple they’ll become!
11 August 2007 at 9:37 pm
I had a weird dream last night. *I live on the seventh floor so I always take the lifts*
One night, I took the elevator and the it suddenly felt like it was falling like a rock! When we got to the ground floor, there were muggers waiting for us. I woke up after that. hehe
11 August 2007 at 11:59 pm
Hell of an experience you’ve got. You should have taken the stairs. Choose one: 25 stories of stairs or instant death? lol
12 August 2007 at 12:55 am
Benj, I thought you were gonna say the falling elevator squished flat your would-have-been muggers. I love gore.
Skye, if I could probably predict that an elevator would fall then I’d most probably take the stairs. Had I predicted too that the elevator I was in would fake dropping, I’d still take it and watch my lift companions pee their pants. Hell, I’d even steal some shots of their worried faces with my cam as a momento.
12 August 2007 at 4:22 am
*Shudders*
I’ve always been wary of elevators. It’s mainly due to the claustrophobia factor. But this is a whole different scare factor! Which will now haunt me everytime I ride one!
12 August 2007 at 5:08 am
From my research, I found out that cable-operated elevators found in most buildings are in fact the safest. Besides, most have mirror-finish on the inside for the claustrophobe in every one of us. I don’t like crowded elevators mainly because of the stench from the passengers. I also hate it when I feel someone exhaling down my nape. Come to think of it, I hate the smell of exhales in general.
13 August 2007 at 1:30 am
I got stuck in an elevator about 6 years ago. On the 8th floor. Not the worst 24 minutes of my life, but definitely up there in my Top 5 Harrowing Experiences. To top that off, there was a man in that elevator who REEKED of excess bad cologne. Either death by freefall or death of my olfactory senses.
13 August 2007 at 1:55 am
The human body is a curious thing in that we all may react to fear and panic differently. I know someone who suddenly gets really hungry in stressful situations. Some pass gas. What I’m saying is it could have been much worse. Damn those lifts!