I had a very strange experience recently in an Otis elevator. It is a short haul model, servicing a 5 floor range. I think the model is called a MES3540 Geared Passenger elevator. Anyway, here's the trip: We got on 2 floors above the lobby level. The doors shut and the elevator lurched a bit, and then started a rapid descent (registered in the pit of my stomach!). It stopped at lobby level, with a significant impact, and the floor indicator light flashed a message that read something like "exit now". The doors did not open however, and the controls were not operable by us inside the elevator. Then the floor indicator changed to L and we began to move again. We ended up in the basement, where the doors opened and we got out. Otis maintains that we imagined the whole trip. They never even checked the car, and simply left it in service. It had been operating rather roughly a day or two previous to this also. Any ideas as to what the hell happened????

-- C. SANDERSON (CERISAND@INETEX.COM), January 18, 2001

Answers

Sounds like a possible combination of someone playing with the emergency recall feature and some understandable reactions to unexpected and unexplained movement.

-- John Brannon (akaelevman@AOL.com), January 18, 2001.

Response to C.Sanderson

While an "Otis Certified" imagination isn't all that rare it could get you ten minutes on stage at the W.LA comedy club. Seriously, In almost 40 years in the trade I have never run across an instance of the customer being wrong. Customer input is greatly appreciated by experienced mechanics and thier companys It saves a lot of time and money every year. Don't let a "bad" experience turn you off. Fred

-- Fred Baltes (Elman101@pacbell.net), January 28, 2001.