Maybe There's A Few More Kinks To Iron Out

The bigger they are, the harder they fail.

The world's tallest skyscraper was unexpectedly closed to the public a month after its lavish opening, disappointing tourists headed for the observation deck and casting doubt over plans to welcome its first permanent occupants in the coming weeks.

Weekend visitors on the observation deck heard a loud boom, then saw dust that looked like smoke seeping through a crack in an elevator door 124 floors above the ground. The 15 people inside were trapped for 45 minutes until rescuers managed to pry open the doors. Because the elevator was apparently stuck between floors, rescuers had to drop a ladder into the shaft so those inside could crawl out. On the observation deck, about 60 more people were stranded.

Emaar Properties, the state-linked company that owns Burj Khalifa, has said little about the incident and nothing about an elevator malfunction. It remains unclear what caused the elevator to the observation deck — the only part of the building that was open. The tower's 57 elevators are supplied by Connecticut based Otis Elevator Co., and a spokesman said the installation is ongoing - but declined to comment on the malfunction, saying it was up to owner Emaar to release details.

Because of its immense height, the Burj will have separate sections on levels 43, 76 and 123 known as "sky lobbies" where tenants will change from express elevators to local ones that stop on each floor. Visitors to the observation deck use dedicated elevators that whisk them from the base to the 124th viewing floor in about a minute. The tower was designed by Chicago-based Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which has a long track record engineering some of the world's tallest buildings, including Chicago's Willis (Sears) Tower. Skidmore engineers involved in the Burj's construction would not comment either.

Emaar issued a brief statement in response to continued questioning, with the vague information that the viewing platform was temporarily shut for "maintenance and upgrade" because of "unexpected high traffic." It also hinted at electrical problems, saying "technical issues with the power supply are being worked on by the main and subcontractors."

Electrical problems are at least partly to blame for the closure of the Burj Khalifa's viewing platform — the only part of the half-mile high tower open yet. But a lack of detailed information left it unclear whether the rest of the largely empty building was affected by the shutdown. The indefinite closure dopes not help Dubai's struggle to revive its international image as a cutting-edge Arab metropolis amid nagging questions about its financial health. The city-state is facing a slump in tourism — which accounts for nearly a fifth of the local economy — while fending off negative publicity caused by more than $80 billion in debt it is struggling to repay.

It's too bad they'll have to wipe their asses with $20s instead of the $100s they were accustomed to now that their lavish lifestyle is slowly disappearing. And don't think that this is the last time Dubai is going to slowly bleed out publicly. they've got a long, ugly fall from decadent grace. It was a pretty big pile of money they were sitting on top of.