When it comes to primal fear, an elevator plunging into free fall is right up there with snakes, quicksand, and great white sharks. In fact, 4% of the worldwide population has an elevator phobia that makes it difficult and even impossible to use them, according to the Phobia-Panic-Anxiety Treatment Center.
If the worst happened to you, would you know what to do to have your best chance of surviving? One TikTok account claims to have the answer, but do the experts agree?
According to their TikTok bio, Feelnick (@science8888) is “a science enthusiast.” The account has posted several videos on a variety of topics, from how to survive an earthquake to how to get paid six figures for changing a lightbulb.
On Oct. 19, the account posted a video captioned, “How should we save ourselves when the elevator suddenly falls?” The video has since garnered over 595 million views and counting. But does it offer the best advice for survival?
The video does squash the rumor that jumping up just before the elevator hits the bottom of the shaft will do anything positive. First of all, you would have no way to know the precise moment of impact and even if you did, jumping up would do little to affect your relative momentum.
Feelnick advises not to panic and to hit the alarm button, trying to contact the building management, if possible. “Then immediately click on all the floors that can be clicked,” the video advises.
After completing the first steps, the video advises grabbing a handrail if the elevator has them, and “keep your knees bent and stand on your toes.”
The video also purports to show a “real” video of a passenger using the first two steps. The elevator stops, and she quickly exits. However, there is no citation that suggests the video is real, as the account claims.
@science8888 How should we save ourselves when the elevator suddenly falls ? #usa #tiktok #scienceexperiments ♬ Aesthetic – Tollan Kim
According to NPR, squatting or bending is not an advisable safety plan if an elevator falls. In a “1960 Civil Aeromedical Research Institute study,” it was found that “squatting on a drop platform caused ‘severe knee pain’ at relatively low G forces. ‘Apparently the flexor muscles … acted as a fulcrum to pry open the knee joint,’ the researchers noted.”
The best practice seems to be lying flat on your back on the floor of the elevator. Live Science states that “your best bet is to lie flat on your back on the floor and cover your face and head to guard against debris. Hitting the ground floor in this position spreads the force of impact across your body; it also orients your spine and long bones perpendicular to the impact direction, which will better protect them from crushing damage.”
Viewer Bierka (@bierka5) wrote that she had heard similar advice on TikTok, commenting “I saw a video on here that said to lay completely flat on the floor if an elevator is falling.”
Another viewer wrote, “supposed to lie down on your back and make yourself as flat as possible to spread out the impact. myth busters did an episode on this.”
Many of the video’s viewers stated that the video brought up longtime fears.
“Elevators just need to not exist,” finessy (@kayleebadman) wrote.
“And I will continue to take the stairs,” another said.
Any reader feeling queasy about their next high-rise experience can take comfort in a few facts. Though elevator injuries are somewhat common—about 10,000 occur every year—they are almost always minor “because of the way modern elevators have been designed with safety features such as automatic brakes, sensors, and emergency stop buttons,” according to Doan Law Firm PLLC.
The likelihood of a cart actually plunging to the bottom of a shaft is so rare as to be nearly zero, according to Gizmodo. So keep calm, and you should be fine.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Feelnick via TikTok for further comment.
