- Electrician AJ Gow was trapped inside a 130-foot commercial sign during repairs in Wilmington.
- His lift malfunctioned, leaving him stranded in dangerous conditions without airflow or water.
- Fearing death, Gow recorded a final goodbye message for his family while waiting for rescue.
An electrician in the United States was trapped inside a massive, 130-foot-tall commercial sign for several hours during a routine maintenance job on July 23. Fearing he would not survive, the worker even recorded a final goodbye for his wife and children while waiting high above the ground, the New York Post reported. The incident happened when the electrician, identified in the report as AJ Gow, climbed up into the hollow structure of the high-rise sign to do electrical repairs at the station in Wilmington, which is about an hour southwest of Chicago.
While working, his lift malfunctioned, trapping him at the height. Exposed to dangerous conditions inside the structure, the situation quickly became life-threatening.
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Why did he record emotional messages?
He thought the help might not arrive in time, which is why he pulled out his phone to record heartbreaking "final words" for his loved ones.
"In the moment, it was getting hairy. I mean I was getting - I was genuinely getting scared, and I didn't know what was going to happen," he said as quoted by ABC 7 Chicago. "And yeah, I was freaking out."
"God forbid if something were to actually happen - it was my final words. So essentially a goodbye without saying goodbye," he said.
Recalling the day, he said, "It was a hot day. There was really no air, so I sent my co-worker down. I said, 'Go get me some water and my battery-powered fan.'"
"He went down, and on his way back up the lift had an issue and could not make it back," Gow added.
"Eventually I started to feel like crap. And I told [my co-worker], you know, call EMS. I said, I don't care what you have to do, get me down."
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Emergency crews arrived at the scene and set up specialised gear to reach the stranded worker. The firefighters and rescue technicians had to carefully navigate the extreme height of 130 feet while dealing with structural safety concerns to reach the sign's interior.
After hours of intense effort, rescuers successfully reached the electrician, secured him, and safely lowered him back to the ground.
The electrician was evaluated by medical personnel on-site following his rescue.
"I was not prepared for it to get as much traction as it did," Gow said. "I had no idea that I was going to be stuck up here for that long, or was going to be anywhere near that kind of scenario."
