What happened to people trapped in the elevators on 9/11?

Discussing 9/11 and the Twin Towers

[KP-wtqr]

I'll always be amazed by Pasquale Buzzelli who was in a stairwell on the 22nd floor when the building started to collapse, he essentially rode it down crouched in the corner of the stairwell. Nothing short of a miracle.

[dariusbalaceanu]

I lost my friend John in the north tower. He worked at the 105th floor and saddly didnt make it. May he and all the people who died that day rest in peace

[lotstodo]

It hurts my heart that people who were out were told to go back up, then didn't make it out.

[tl]

I was in the north tower. If you want an interview with me reach out I would love to do an interview with you.

[epaddon]

When Orio Palmer got up to the 78th floor before the South Tower collapsed he did radio that he got a stuck elevator open that people had been trapped in. So some people who had been trapped for nearly an hour just had the excitement of being freed from an elevator only to die minutes later when the South Tower collapsed.

[NotoriousPacOG]

There was an elevator in the North Tower lobby in the Naudet brothers documentary that opened up randomly about 30 mins after the plane hit & the people exited unharmed. They had no idea what even happened. Imagine how many people in the elevators that had no idea what even occurred. Such a terrible tragedy.

[shanehall]

Very interesting video. 9/11 has almost never ending topics to talking about maybe millions.

[thenorseguy]

It’s almost 23 years ago. I still can’t belive it happend. I was on top of one of the tower as a kid in 1984. It was an amazing view

[stacieo]

It’s so tragic that people were told to stay in the towers or go back in. It should have been an immediate evacuation 😢we definitely live different lives now. I think every where I go I look for the nearest exit and make a plan just in case- movies, malls, hotels etc

[GR-bnxj]

I have been asking this question for years.I'm so glad somebody's answering it

[ristobenjie]

The janitor was Jan Demenczur, I remember this off the top of my head

[jbcd]

The express elevator shafts were huge (elevators could fit 55 people), way bigger than the local elevators. A few of these shafts extended up to the explosion region and were the main conduits for blast energy to reach all the way down to the lobby. Witnesses escaping from high floors of WTC1 reported that when they reached the sky lobby they could see a waterfall of fire (burning jet fuel) in one of the shafts that had doors blown out. Sadly many people trapped in stuck elevators below were cooked alive by the rain of burning fuel.

[bennyblanco]

Also it’s been documented by Firefighters in the North Tower, that there were found remains(burned) in several downed elevators upon entering the North Tower lobby. There were people stuck while jet fuel made its way down the building.

[MontoyaGamer_Entertainment]

I remember some people who were trapped in one of the elevators in Tower 1.

They dug through the sheet rock wall into a restroom on the 60th floor.

[AM-blcs]

The elevators were equipped with a safety system whereby if the buildings moved more than a set amount, due to wind loads on the buildings, the elevators would automatically shutdown and stop. This lead to people being regularly trapped in elevators until maintenance went and reset the elevators. Because of the force of the planes hitting they caused the buildings to sway, especially the south tower, which would have shut down basically all of the elevators, except maybe for some of the lower elevators where the movement of the building would have been less. Building staff did manage to get some of the elevators working again by resetting them. There's a video of the WTC elevators where an elevator maintenance guy explains this 'safety' system. Video is called "WTC elevator installation". There were 99 elevators in each building, so lots of people would have been trapped especially in the south tower.

[norrinRadd]

Orio Palmer's team helped a group of people trapped in an elevator to get out. 3 minutes before the collapse of the south tower. So close to life but so far away, what an unfair way to die all the people on that fateful day

[Nopenadanope]

Can you imagine being stuck in an elevator after a free fall.. only for the janitor to dig their way through a wall for escape.. just to get right back on another elevator?! that shyt bro !! “taking the stairs from here”

[AaronDanieltenni]

Honestly, it still breaks my heart knowing that there were people in these elevators that even died.

The sky lobbies. the floors. everything...they didn't deserve to die like that...no one did on that day...

[GratiaCountryman]

One of the things I had drilled into my head during building evacuation drills was to never set foot inside the elevator. Find the nearest intact stairs and take them.

[janetomkinson]

there is a play written by Patrick James Carson called 'Elevator' where five are trapped in an elevator during 9/11, one of the people being a janitor. This was later made into a low budget movie called '9/11' and starred Whoopie Goldberg, Charlie Sheen and Louis Guzman. Its not a long film, and most of it was filmed inside an elevator. The last few seconds are heartbreaking and always leaves me with goosebumps