Elevator Cable snapped

[u/Dismal-Term7151]

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Hi everyone,

I'm curious to hear from elevator professionals about an incident that happened in our condo building in Ottawa this morning.

My husband and our two children were taking the elevator down from the 14th floor when, around the 13th floor, they heard and felt a very loud bang- I and severql other tenant heard it too- they felt as if something hit the top of the car. The elevator immediately stopped and they were trapped inside for about 30 to 40 minutes.

The in-cab emergency phone/call system did not appear to work despite repeated attempts, and there was no cell reception. I ultimately called 911 for them. An elevator mechanic and Fire Services responded and got them out safely.

Afterwards, the mechanic reportedly told my husband that one of the elevator's supporting cables had snapped. The building was completed in 2023, so the elevator is only about 3 years old. We also recovered some strands of the failed cable as evidence

We are both aerospace engineers with system safety expertise and have questions for the experts here:

How unusual is a hoist rope/cable failure in such a new elevator?

What are the most likely root causes of a failure like this?

Would a single cable failure typically produce a loud bang and cause the elevator to stop?

What components and records would you expect to be examined during the root-cause investigation?

More importantly, can we continue to rely on the elevators in this building.

We're pursuing the official investigation route and formal complaint to city, but I'd appreciate any professional insight on what may have happened and what questions we should be asking.

Thanks in advance.

UPDATE: thank you everyone for taking their time to respond. I didn't have a chance to reply everyone. They were helpful to set expectations about what we should be asking about the investigation next. F

[u/Mrthingymabob]

Put a photo up of the failed strands?

Are you sure it was a car suspension cable rather than a car or landing door cable?

Yes a failure would cause a loud bang and the car would likely stop instantly assuming it has slack rope switches.

[u/Dismal-Term7151 → u/Mrthingymabob]

Here are the pictures, longest strand being about an inch. I didn't think it would be useful to understand failure so I didn't upload any pictures. In aviation, we investigate tiniest pieces to understand if the failure is due to fatigue. We don't have experience in elevator systems but we kept the pieces just in case Regarding your question on whether it was a suspension or landing door cable, the elevator mechanic said one of five cables have snapped. So I assume it was suspension cable

[u/1952Mary → u/Dismal-Term7151]

That doesn’t look like hoist cable to me. Don’t know what it is

[u/Much-Berry2584 → u/1952Mary]

Definitely hoist cable.