Rick Lindfors – Meridian Editor in Chief
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – A mountain rescue team brought their skills deep into an elevator shaft to rescue stranded passengers. On the night of October 23, 2022, an elevator at Grand Canyon Caverns suffered a malfunction, stranding several people 21 stories below the surface. According to the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office, some passengers were able to use an emergency staircase in the shaft, but three were not comfortable with making the ascent. The stranded party was able to spend the night in a hotel room in the caverns while repair crews attempted to fix the elevator. The repair efforts did not succeed, with CCSO deciding to hoist the passengers up the shaft.
“We thought the best device [for the situation] was an AVED seat,” said Sgt. Aaron Dick, the incident commander for the rescue. The AVED seat is a hammock-type harness used for hoisting patients. Dick says the mountain rescue team was confident they could pull off the operation despite the unusual mission setting. “We were comfortable we could do the rigging, but we had never trained in an elevator shaft,” he said, adding that technical rescue staff from the Flagstaff fire department assisted in setting up and executing the hoist. “We do a lot of training with Flagstaff fire and Sedona fire,” said Dick, adding that the SAR teams and fire rescue teams routinely work together on rescue missions.
The rescue team built the system by rigging up the elevator shaft and through the lobby of the surface building. They rigged a high directional to the steel beams in the shaft and anchored it to a vehicle outside. They rigged a belay line to a nearby tree. The main rope was 600 feet long, allowing the rescuers to avoid knot passes while raising their subjects. Once that system was prepared, subjects were put into the AVED seat and raised. A rescue team member would ascend the fire escape next to them to provide reassurance. Raising each subject took about 15 minutes. Once at the top of the elevator shaft, they received a medical evaluation and all subjects were cleared.
The mission to raise the subjects 21 stories through an elevator shaft proved to be an example of the relationships between the rescue agencies as well as adapting to an unusual mission space. “It was a relatively simple system, just a unique location with some problem solving,” said Dick.
Photo Captions
1. (Cover Image) A rescue system used to hoist stranded elevator passengers west of Flagstaff, Ariz. (Coconino County Sheriff’s Office)
2. A SAR team member works on a rope system in an elevator shaft at Grand Canyon Caverns. (Coconino County Sheriff’s Office)
3. SAR team members work on the rope system outside the elevator. The system was anchored to a vehicle. (Coconino County Sheriff’s Office)
