In November 2018, 6 people boarded an elevator at the former John Hancock Center in Chicago for the ride down from the Signature Room bar on the 95th floor to the lobby, but the long ride got a lot worse when one of the cables snapped and the elevator plunged 84 floors to the 11th floor. Amazingly, none of the passengers had to be hospitalized and there were no serious injuries. So, how was it possible that one of the worst things that can happen to people in an elevator occurred and everyone survived? Almost all pulley elevators have multiple cables — between 4 and 8 total. Even if one cable snapped, the remaining cables would hold the elevator car up. In fact, just one cable is usually enough. Let's say all the cables did snap. Then the elevator's safeties would kick in. Safeties are braking systems on the elevator car that grab onto the rails running up and down the elevator shaft. If the safeties failed, you would be plummeting rapidly, but you wouldn't quite be in a free fall. Friction from the rails along the shaft and pressure from the air underneath the car would slow the car down considerably. Upon impact, the car would stop and you would keep going, the elevator slamming you into the floor. However, two things would cushion the blow. First, the elevator car would compress the air at the bottom of the shaft as it fell — just as a piston compresses air in a bicycle pump — and slow the elevator car down. Second, most cable elevators have a built-in shock absorber at the bottom of the shaft that would cushion the impact as well. With all these features in place, you would have an excellent chance of surviving any elevator mishap.
