Man trapped in lift for 41 hours

Published: 16 May 2008.

Ten years after a man spent 41 hours trapped in a New York elevator, CCTV footage of his terrifying ordeal has become an internet sensation.

Nicholas White was on the way back up to the 39th floor office of Business Week magazine late one Friday night in 1999 when the lift ground to a halt, trapping him for nearly an entire weekend.

Almost ten years later, timelapse footage of Mr White's horror weekend has become a Youtube sensation and he has finally got his fifteen minutes of fame.

An article has been published about him in The New Yorker and Mr White even appeared on Good Morning America on Monday to relive his experience.

By Monday night the video had been viewed almost 300,000 times.

Backed by an eerie classical piano soundtrack, it shows Mr White pacing, climbing the walls, prying at the doors and curled up on the floor.

At first the 34-year-old seems calm, pressing the intercom and waiting for assistance, but after several hours, he was hearing patterns in the continuous ringing of the lift's alarm and he began to get worried.

"After a certain amount of time I knew I was in big trouble.

"I had no idea if it was day or night."

He had no phone, no watch and no food or water.

The CCTV footage shows the building's three other lifts underwent repairs while Mr White was stuck but apparently no one noticed the broken elevator.

Mr White sued the building's managers and the lift maintenance company, winning an undisclosed settlement, but he never went back to his job.

It is still unclear why the lift stalled.