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Mystery of Burj Khalifa visitors stuck in lift
Dubai authorities offer minimal response after lift passengers’ terrifying ordeal
It's one thing being stuck in a lift between floors in a relatively small skyscraper like the Empire State Building. It's another when it is the tallest building in the world, the recently opened 828-metre Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai.
A group of 15 passengers, hoping to see the view from the observation deck on the 124th floor of the 160-floor building, were reported to be terrified, some hysterical, after they were stranded for 45 minutes on Saturday.
Visitors reported the sound of a crash "like a small explosion" and the sight of smoke billowing when the lift failed. Questions about how it happened - and why staff were so slow to react - have been met with only a minimal response.
Tourists on the observation deck who heard the crash and the noise of breaking glass coming from the lift shaft say they reported it to security guards who at first said nothing was wrong. The passengers were eventually able to escape using a ladder dropped from the observation deck into the lift shaft.
Fox News has reported that this is the second time a lift has got stuck since the grand opening of the Burj Khalif tower on January 4.
However, inquiries in Dubai about the incident elicited only very sketchy answers. The tower's management company said only that the observation desk was now closed due to "maintenance upgrades", while Dubai government authorities admitted only to "an incident".
It was treated as a non-story by the state-run media in the city-state of Dubai, still shaken by last year's debt problems and the $10bn rescue in December by their oil-rich neighbours Abu Dhabi. As a result, the tower, originally called the Burj Dubai, was suddenly renamed the Burj Khalifa in honour of Abu Dhabi's ruler, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan. ·
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Yes, OK, 45 minutes isn't a lifetime but when you're 123.5 floors up the world's tallest skyscraper it probably feels a lot longer. Anyway, how long has this building been open? Just over a month and 2 lift failures already? Didn't anyone think about testing the damn things before the building was opened to the public? Of course the Dubai media are saying this is a non-story. They're owned by the same family that built the Burj Khalifa!
I agree with Dubai media that this is a non-story having once been stuck in a city centre office lift next door to the central Fire Station, it took Firemen 45 minutes to release us. The tower's management company response time was reasonable given that this is a very large building.