Subcontract personnel assigned the task to decommission the No.2 elevator located in Building 105-P disconnected seven of the eight cables supporting the elevator car. While lowering the car to the bottom of the elevator pit, the remaining cable rod broke in half, causing the elevator car to fall approximately twenty feet into the bottom of the pit. During the free fall of the elevator car, the safety brakes located under the car failed to stop the car's descent. No personnel were injured in this incident and failure analysis is under way to determine the cause of the failure. Although elevator safety brakes are not designed to completely stop an elevator car's descent in a free fall condition, current information leads CSWE Engineering personnel to suspect the brakes did not function satisfactorily.
Failure analysis is underway to determine the cause of the failure.
Elevator custodians should schedule load testing of similar type elevators.