A pregnant woman was among six people who survived a lift plunging 84 floors after its cables snapped.
The group, including two law students and two Mexican tourists, entered the lift on the 95th floor of the former John Hancock Centre, one of Chicago's tallest skyscrapers, in the early hours of Friday.
They had left the Signature Room restaurant and entered the express lift to take them straight to the bottom of the building when it plummeted.
Mexican tourist Jaime Montemayor, who was in the lift, told CBS Chicago: "At the beginning I believed we were going to die.
"We were going down and then I felt that we were falling down and then I heard a noise-clack clack clack clack clack clack."
Friends who had come down in another lift quickly realised something was wrong when the group did not appear after 20 minutes.
It took firefighters two hours to get to the group, who were in between the 12th and 11th floors, as there were few openings because it was an express lift.
The firefighters broke through a concrete wall on the 11th floor's garage area where the lift was dangling after two cables snapped.
Rescuers managed to prise the lift doors open and pull the group out.
Incredibly none of the group required hospital treatment.
Chicago fire department battalion chief Patrick Maloney, said: "It was a pretty precarious situation, where we had the cables that were broke on top of the elevator.
More from Chicago
"We couldn't do an elevator-to-elevator rescue.
"We had to breach a wall on the 11th floor of the parking garage in order to open up the elevator doors."
A pregnant woman was among six people who survived a lift plunging 84 floors after its cables snapped.
The group, including two law students and two Mexican tourists, entered the lift on the 95th floor of the former John Hancock Centre, one of Chicago's tallest skyscrapers, in the early hours of Friday.
They had left the Signature Room restaurant and entered the express lift to take them straight to the bottom of the building when it plummeted.
Mexican tourist Jaime Montemayor, who was in the lift, told CBS Chicago: "At the beginning I believed we were going to die.
"We were going down and then I felt that we were falling down and then I heard a noise-clack clack clack clack clack clack."
Friends who had come down in another lift quickly realised something was wrong when the group did not appear after 20 minutes.
It took firefighters two hours to get to the group, who were in between the 12th and 11th floors, as there were few openings because it was an express lift.
The firefighters broke through a concrete wall on the 11th floor's garage area where the lift was dangling after two cables snapped.
Rescuers managed to prise the lift doors open and pull the group out.
Incredibly none of the group required hospital treatment.
Chicago fire department battalion chief Patrick Maloney, said: "It was a pretty precarious situation, where we had the cables that were broke on top of the elevator.
More from Chicago
"We couldn't do an elevator-to-elevator rescue.
"We had to breach a wall on the 11th floor of the parking garage in order to open up the elevator doors."
