Modern elevators will not fall unless they are extensively sabotaged.
In 1857,
Elisha Otis, of the Otis Elevator Company introduced the Otis Elevator Brake, now a standard component of all elevators. He advertised it by getting in an elevator, riding it to the top, and then ordering that the cable supporting the elevator be cut.
When the elevator is held up by the tension in the cable above, that same tension holds the braking mechanism in a position where it doesn’t touch anything. But if the tension goes away, a spring is released which causes the prongs of the elevator break to thrust outward, locking into a row of teeth running down the side of the elevator shaft and making the elevator completely immobile until repaired.
You can be trapped in an elevator, but you cannot fall in an elevator.
This is actually really comforting thank you
And if you’re also worried about the cable snapping each cable needs to be able to hold up the weight of an elevator at 40% capacity. Your standard elevator has 8 of those cables. You are very very very safe in elevators and like the above commentor said there are teeth along the elevator tracks that shut the second tension is released and the elevator starts falling.
I remember watching the Mythbusters test the “jump right as it hits” thing and they showed some of the safety stuff they had to disable and talked about how there was really no way in the first place to get it to drop without removing multiple redundant systems.
(Side note, the jumping did not work and Buster was obliterated.)
amhrancas 