Packed elevator goes into free fall at trendy NYC hotel
If you have a fear of elevators, you might want to skip this...
A late-night party at Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City for indie film "Janie Jones" last Thursday turned into a horror flick for 14 people - including the movie"s star and director, the New York Post, New York magazine and others report.
Party goers had packed into the elevator on the hotel"s rooftop terrace and then made one more stop on another floor, when the elevator went into free fall - with the door partially open.
It plunged eight stories before the emergency brakes stopped it, the stories say.
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Among those trapped inside: actors Alessandro Nivola, Josh Charles and Rosie Fellner, director David Rosenthal, comedian Seth Herzog and Celine Rattray, producer of "The Kids Are All Right."
They escaped after a 30-minute wait - that"s 30 minutes in a dangling elevator, the Post says.
They eventually crawled - one by one - out of the broken elevator upon to the second floor where it had stopped, despite fears that the elevator might move again and crush someone, New York magazine tells us.
New York magazine provided this gripping account from director Rosenthal:
"We"ve all had a couple of drinks and they closed up shop at the Gramercy, and we"re just piling into the elevator." Just as Rosenthal was thinking, "Oh God, this is getting too full," British actor Guy Burnet jumped in with one other person, bringing the total to twelve rowdy and tipsy people onboard, including Nivola, Charles, British actress Rosie Fellner, and Seth Herzog.
The elevator stopped a few flights down, and when the doors opened, the inhabitants gave a welcoming yell to a rather hefty older gentleman from the Netherlands who was waiting there with his girlfriend.
"Everyone is yelling and hooting," says Rosenthal, "and the guy I"m sure was drunk and thinks it"s a party. So they decide to jump in, and as soon as they jump in, the thing starts plummeting down. His girlfriend is lucky she didn"t get killed because her foot was barely inside the door when the elevator dropped." The door remained partially open, and they could see floors rushing by through the gap.
Although the Fire Department was called, firefighters didn"t come until the scare was almost over, the piece says.
In a statement, Gramercy Park Hotel manager Elizabeth Mao confirmed there was an "elevator malfunction" and that their security team "responded to the incident immediately and within minute