NEW YORK (AP) -- The idea emerged after Jonathan "Yoni" Shimshoni and a team of aspiring inventors in Israel watched a television documentary about victims trapped on the upper floors of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Shimshoni recalled seeing the towers ablaze and thinking, "This is nuts. This shouldn't have to happen." The team came up with a $1 million escape device with expandable cabins that could be lowered like lifeboats outside a high-rise in distress. A prototype tested in Tel Aviv drew praise from politicians, public safety experts and the landlord of a Manhattan skyscraper, who offered his property for a pilot program. Then Shimshoni received a discouraging letter from the city's Office of Emergency Management. He was told, in short, that the project was unworthy of the necessary building permits. The letter was a blow to Shimshoni's company, Escape Rescue Systems. But the CEO -- a 55-year-old former Israeli military officer with a doctorate in public policy from Princeton University -- insists it wasn't fatal. Out of the entire story, my favorite line has to be "If there's anyplace that should revolutionize high-rise safety, it's New York City". Doesn't that just feel like a kick in the teeth to all those people who died? I mean, they're making it sound like NY will specifically be targeted in the future over every other place in the world for terrorist attacks. What happens when everybody on floor 15 dies, and people on floor 16 need to go down?
Not really surprising. NYC is as corrupt as New orleans was, just a little less blantant about it. They probably didn't brive the right official.
No, the universal image of New York is wall-to-wall skyscrapers and Towering Inferno, (though that was San Francisco) which does occasionally happen in real-life. Steve McQueen won't be there to save your ass.
That's not far from the truth in some places. I know someone who has a parachute in a residential highrise in HK and as trained to use it. Not as an extreme sport but rather as an escape route in case of fire as it was supplied with the flat when it was bought.
Yep, i'd just use a parachute, in fact all high rise buildings should have emergency parchuts mounted on the walls, just like boats have lifejackets.
Problem being that if you're trapped, with fire on floors beneath you, then it would be hard to jump "out" far enoough to avoid the fire.
The problem with parachuting out of a skyscraper includes falling into traffic, smacking into buildings, colliding with other escapers, getting snagged on part of the building, breaking bones upon impact with the ground (you'd have to pull the cord VERY quickly and even then you might still sustain injuries). Personally, I think that such a device should be included in a pilot program - a proof of concept testbed trial program.
