The UK supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has apologised after ten customers were trapped for more than two hours in a malfunctioning lift at its Blackpool outlet.
The incident happened on Monday afternoon, leaving those inside frightened and struggling to breathe. The lift reportedly made a loud grinding noise before suddenly dropping and coming to a stop between floors, making escape seemingly impossible.
Jason Redshaw, 53, who was among those trapped, said the ordeal began at around 14:00 BST when the lift “made an awful noise” before plunging downwards and slamming to a halt, throwing people off their feet.
He described the experience as terrifying and said he would “never get in a lift again.”
Mr Redshaw had been travelling from the first-floor car park to the shopping area with his partner, 65-year-old David Charles-Cully, when the incident happened. “As soon as the door closed we heard this awful kind of grinding, crunching noise as if something was scraping against the side of the elevator and we heard this noise from above,” he said.
“Now I thought it sounded like the belt system was actually giving way, and then suddenly we felt as if the ground kind of fell away beneath us and as if basically we were dropping and that the system had just failed.”
The group of ten included several older shoppers, a man with a lung condition, and another who had recently been diagnosed with heart failure.
Mr Redshaw, who is asthmatic, said the air became “stuffy” and he was forced to use his inhaler multiple times as they waited for help.
For nearly an hour, those trapped tried desperately to raise the alarm. “We were banging on doors and screaming to try and get the attention of the staff,” Mr Redshaw said. “One gentleman had bought a frying pan and he was actually using it to bang on the metal doors of the lift but to no avail, nobody could hear us.”
When they pressed the emergency button, he said, the system seemed “so antiquated” that the operator on the other end could not hear them.
Mr Redshaw managed to pry open the lift doors slightly using a pair of nail clippers but was met with a brick wall. After about an hour, firefighters arrived and managed to open the doors enough to pass drinks and chocolate bars inside.
The trapped customers were finally freed at around 16:00 BST after a lift engineer, delayed in traffic en route from Chester, reached the scene.
Reflecting on the experience, Mr Redshaw said, “I think when you go through something that’s traumatic, on the actual day when it happens it’s fresh trauma. It’s only afterwards when you sit down and you take in what could have happened, you actually start to think about it – maybe overthink a little bit too much.
“That’s where, I’m not going to say it’s upset me, but it certainly made me very wary.”
None of the passengers were seriously injured, though Mr Redshaw said he was particularly shaken to discover that the same lift had reportedly been out of service the week before, leaving him concerned that similar issues had occurred previously.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said: “Our Blackpool store manager is in contact with the customers involved and has explained how sorry we are for their experience. The lift remains closed while this incident is fully investigated.”
Under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER), businesses responsible for passenger lifts must ensure that all lifting equipment is fit for purpose, properly maintained, and regularly inspected.
Regulations require that all lifting operations are planned and supervised by competent professionals and that equipment used to lift people is subject to more frequent thorough examinations.
Investigations will aim to confirm whether all procedures under LOLER and related safety regulations were followed before the incident.
For the ten customers caught inside, the experience was a frightening reminder of how quickly a routine shopping trip can turn into a distressing event. Sainsbury’s said it is working with engineers to ensure the lift is safe before reopening and to prevent a repeat of what it described as a deeply regrettable incident.
Sainsbury’s has not commented on whether recent maintenance had been carried out but confirmed that the lift would remain closed pending safety checks.
