"Ask a vertical-transportation-industry professional to recall an episode of an elevator in free...

“Ask a vertical-transportation-industry professional to recall an episode of an elevator in free fall….”

Breaking: 1 reported dead and at least 2 others injured in elevator fall at 285 Madison Ave, home of Young&Rubicam;

— NYT Metro Desk(@NYTMetro) December 14, 2011

“Ask a vertical-transportation-industry professional to recall an episode of an elevator in free fall — the cab plummeting in the shaftway, frayed rope ends trailing in the dark — and he will say that he can think of only one. That would be the Empire State Building incident of 1945, in which a B-25 bomber pilot made a wrong turn in the fog and crashed into the seventy-ninth floor, snapping the hoist and safety cables of two elevators,” wrote Nick Paumgarten in April, 2008. Well, now it sounds like there are two. UPDATE: Or quite possibly not, according to further reports!