Has anyone survived a free falling elevator?

On 28 July 1945, a U.S. Army plane crashed into the Empire State Building in New York City, causing an elevator to fall 75 stories (more than 300 meters or 1,000 feet). Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver was injured but survived. It remains the Guinness World Record for the longest fall survived in an elevator.
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What is the longest elevator free fall survivor?

In this #TBT, meet elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver, who holds the record for surviving the longest elevator free fall in 1945.
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How rare is it for an elevator to free fall?

The only elevator fall due to a complete cable system failure occurred during the 1940's when an airplane crashed into the empire state building and severed all the cables on a particular elevator. MYTH - Some people believe that an overcrowded elevator will fall.
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What happens if a lift is in free fall?

Answer. In a state of free fall, both you and the elevator are weightless, and jointly approaching the bottom of the shaft at the same high velocity.
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Would you float in a free falling elevator?

The elevator's cable is cut and there's no safety brake. Both you and the elevator are now accelerating at the same rate. If you press your toes down on the elevator's floor, what do you think happens? The answer is that you float up.
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How To ACTUALLY Survive A Free Falling Elevator

Should you lay on your back in a falling elevator?

In contrast to jumping, your best bet is to lie flat! Lift's have many safety procedures in place, one of which is a crumple zone underneath. Your best method of survival is to spread yourself out, picking your softest side and protect your head.
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Do you hit the ceiling if the elevator falls?

In free fall, in theory any push whatsoever on the floor of the elevator will get you to the ceiling. The elevator is falling the same way as you are, so there is no gravitational pull pulling you down to its floor.
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What is the weight of the body in a free fall elevator?

However, weight is measured by measuring the normal force produced by scale on the body. While in free fall, their is no normal force acting on the body, so there is no apparent weight.
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Has anyone survived a huge fall?

Vesna Vulović (Serbian Cyrillic: Весна Вуловић, pronounced [ʋêsna ʋûːloʋitɕ]; 3 January 1950 – 23 December 2016) was a Serbian flight attendant who survived the highest fall without a parachute: 10.16 kilometres (6.31 miles) or 33,330 feet.
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How do you survive a 35000 foot fall?

To slow your descent, emulate a sky diver. Spread your arms and legs, present your chest to the ground, and arch your back and head upward. This adds friction and helps you maneuver. But don't relax.
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Can you survive a 1000 foot fall?

You would approach terminal velocity of roughly 120 mph / 200 kmh. If the thousand foot fall was terminated by a solid object, you would die very quickly. If the thousand foot fall was terminated by a body of water, you would die just as quickly as if you had hit a solid object.
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What happens if you jump right before impact?

If you jump up, then you'll change your velocity just a little bit. So you'll be going a tiny bit slower when you hit the ground. So, technically speaking, you would probably not be hurt quite as much. But this difference would probably be so small as to not be noticeable.
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How many floors can you fall and still survive?

The Greater the Height, the Greater the Danger

Other trauma studies seem to indicate that a fall from a fourth-floor (about 48 feet) has a 50% survival rate, while a fall from a 7th floor (about 84 feet) has only a 10% survival rate.
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How often do elevator cables snap?

Each elevator cable is made from several lengths of steel material wound around one another. These cables very rarely snap, and inspectors regularly look at them for wear and tear.
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What happens if I jump inside an elevator?

Modern elevators contain sensors designed to continuously monitor for malfunctions or unusual behavior. Sensors can now detect jumping impacts on the floor, sound an alarm and stop the elevator. You must wait until someone comes to release you.
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What happens if you drop something in the crack of an elevator?

It depends on what you drop and what type of elevator you're in. In most cases, it will travel down the hoistway until it reaches the pit.
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What is the safest place to be in a falling elevator?

Q. If I find myself in a free-falling elevator, is there any position that might increase my chance of survival? (Climbing on top of other people is not an acceptable answer.) A. The best option would be to lie on your back on the floor as flat as possible, said Eliot H.
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How fast does an elevator free fall?

On the plus side, it's impractical to build a hydraulic lift higher than six stories, so you're only going to fall 60 to 90 feet. Then again, that means you'll hit the basement doing a brisk 48 to 53 mph. Ouch. So, you're in a falling elevator.
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Why do you lay flat on a falling elevator?

Falling three storeys (9m): you hit the ground as if you fell 4.7m. Your predicament is upgraded from possibly dead to alive but injured. Expect a broken leg or two, but you'll live. (Some have suggested lying down in the lift, because it will distribute the force of impact over your whole body.
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How often do elevators free fall?

Almost never. Elevators have many safety features such as strong cables, overspeed motor governors, overspeed falling brakes, and intrinsically speed-limited motors. Plus there is an intrinsic braking action of the air below the elevator.
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Why does a person in a free falling lift experience 0 weight?

When in free fall, the only force acting upon your body is the force of gravity - a non-contact force. Since the force of gravity cannot be felt without any other opposing forces, you would have no sensation of it. You would feel weightless when in a state of free fall.
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Can a human survive a 300 foot fall?

Plummeting 91 meters (300 feet) and landing on solid rock is generally not conducive to survival. Against all odds, however, one climber survived the “unsurvivable” after a rope slid through her harness and she entered freefall downwards, escaping with severe but non-fatal injuries.
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What is the largest fall you can survive?

People usually survive falls from a height of 20-25 feet (6-8 meters), but above that, things get very deadly very fast. A study done in Paris in 2005 looked at 287 victims of falls, and found that falls from 8 stories (30 meters) or higher were 100% fatal.
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