It was a moment of pure horror for a group of visitors when an elevator fell 84 floors on Nov. 16, 2018, at 875 North Michigan Avenue — a Chicago skyscraper popularly known as the John Hancock Center, the fourth tallest building in the Windy City.
Jaime Montemayor, a visitor from Mexico, said, “At the beginning, I believed we were going to die. We were going down and then I felt that we were falling down and then I heard a noise — clack clack clack clack clack clack.”
His wife, Maña Montemayor, added, “I knew something wasn’t OK.” Only later would she learn that they had fallen from the building’s Signature Room on the 95th floor to the 11th floor.
They weren’t the only ones in the elevator. Four other people were trapped with them, including a pair of law students from Northwestern University.
Fear started to grip them all, and they began to panic — but the Montemayors clutched each other and began to pray.
Soon, the others joined them, forming a prayer circle as their prayers began to rise.
To add to their misery, first responders didn’t have an easy way to reach them.
Chicago Battalion Fire Chief Patrick Maloney said, “It was a precarious situation where we had the cable break on top of the elevator. (W)e couldn’t do an elevator-to-elevator rescue. We had to breach a wall.”
Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford added, “We don’t like to have to go through walls unless it’s absolutely necessary.
“The only other way to get to the elevator would have been ropes from the 97th floor, and that would not be safe. We don’t come down like Batman, so we must go through the wall.”
The firefighters finally came through, though the Montemayors’ traveling friend, Luis Vazquez, found the whole situation astonishing. “This is the second most important building in Chicago, and this is the third most important city in the United States?” he asked.
“In 98 floors, they have no place to open any door? That is the craziest thing.”
It was a truly supernatural incident — after three hours, all the passengers made it out safely, and no one needed to go to the hospital.
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