Chicago elevator incident: Lift carrying passengers plunges more than 80 floors as hoist rope breaks

Six people plunged more than 80 floors when a lift in Chicago’s fourth-tallest building malfunctioned.

The elevator in the building formerly known as the John Hancock Centre plummeted after a hoist rope broke on Friday.

“At the beginning I believed we were going to die,” Jaime Montemayor, a visitor from Mexico, told CBS 2 Chicago.

“We were going down and then I felt that we were falling down and then I heard a noise - clack clack clack clack clack clack.”

The six passengers had got on at the 95th floor and the lift fell down to the 11th floor, where other hoist ropes halted its fall.

When the fire department arrived, they found there was no door to the lift on the 11th floor, so had to cut a hole through a wall in order to rescue the passengers.

The rescue took nearly three hours.

None of those in the elevator were injured.

The name of the 100-storey building was changed earlier this year from the John Hancock Centre to the name of its address, 875 North Michigan Avenue.