Elevator uplift

Passengers were left stranded between floors this year after their lift car broke down inside the Burj Khalifa. Visitors were trapped for 45 minutes.

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Going through life without facilities management and maintenance can prove to be very difficult. It goes without saying that broken air conditioning in the office or at home causes extreme discomfort, especially with the climate in the Middle East.

And, filthy windows both destroy our scenic views of the Gulf and discourage investors from placing a bid on a property.

But, the implications of neglecting a building’s plant and equipment can also be deadly, particularly when it comes to elevators. And, due to the huge amount of people using them, the need for individual repairs and services is on the increase.

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Over the years, lifts have malfunctioned and, as a result, a number of accidents and fatalities have occurred.

In November 2008, 11 labourers needed hospital treatment when an elevator they were testing plunged 45 floors to the ground on a construction site in Bahrain.

More recently, passengers were left stranded between floors after their lift car broke down inside the Burj Khalifa. And, in March this year, British former F1 driver Stirling Moss broke his ankles after falling down an elevator shaft in London.

So why do these incidents arise and how can they be prevented from happening again?

“Elevators should not be seen as a box moving up and down, behind them is complex technology, which needs to be properly monitored and maintained.Regular preventive and proactive maintenance can avert break downs to a large extent, even though they cannot be eliminated totally,” says Joseph Anil Paul, product line manager for Schindler’s elevator department.

“It is the responsibility of the owners to ensure that their equipment is in the safe hands of a professional and capable maintenance provider.”

And, Rajkumar Viswanathan, service manager for Al Futtaim Engineering’s elevator and escalator division says that the cause of breakdowns should be separated into those that are controllable and those that are not.

“Controllable breakdowns have a technical cause, which might come down to the quality of production, installation or maintenance. Those that are uncontrollable, from an elevator maintenance perspective, are caused by misuse, vandalism, power supply problems etc,” he reports.

“The rate of breakdowns that arise is based on quality of the product, installation and maintenance, usage, power supply etc.”