LAS VEGAS -- A man is hospitalized in critical condition after plunging down an elevator shaft at the Luxor Hotel and Casino over the weekend.
Sources tell the I-Team the man, a Nellis serviceman, suffered massive head trauma.
In February, the I-Team told the story of a Las Vegas marshal stuck in an elevator in the county courthouse.
Since then, the I-Team has gathered piles of reports exposing elevator and escalator accidents and dangers.
According to metro police, this latest incident involved two Nellis servicemen who were fighting in the lobby of the Luxor early Saturday morning.
One man shoved the other man causing him to hit an elevator door.
The outer door is called the hoistway door and it's not supposed to open unless the elevator cab door inside the shaft is also open. There is a piece of vinyl at the bottom called a gibb and a steel bracket to prevent the door from opening. It is not known if both of those were present at the time of this accident.
When the man's body hit the elevator door, it forced the hoistway door to swing back. The man fell 20 feet down the shaft, hitting moving cables and machinery along the way.
"The door swings. It stays affixed at the top and it swings into the hoistway. The hole is created and the door swings back. You could literally be standing there and an individual disappear and you would turn around and not know where they went," said William Stanley, International Union of Elevator Constructors.
The state Division of Industrial Relations is investigating the accident.
A state spokesman said that particular Luxor elevator passed a complete annual inspection last March.
They also add there were no recent reports of mechanical failure with that elevator.
Metro police are also investigating. So far, they have not pressed charges against the Nellis serviceman involved.
MGM Resorts International says they are fully cooperating with investigators and their thoughts go out to the injured serviceman's family.
