A 16-year-old boy fell 50 feet down a shaft inside the Queensboro Bridge while performing a dangerous stunt he planned to post on TikTok, authorities said Tuesday.
First responders rescued the teen, who was suffering from hypothermia, from the narrow shaft of a main tower supporting the bridge where it rises over Roosevelt Island around 9 p.m. Monday, according to the FDNY.
“It was a very difficult, time-consuming rescue that involves high-angle equipment and ropes,” FDNY Deputy Chief Nicholas Corrado said. “But we got to the victim … and got him out.”
It’s believed the teen had been stuck in the shaft about three hours before he was rescued. He had climbed down a ladder into the shaft but became trapped after falling roughly five stories, FDNY Lt. Christopher Gaulrapp said.
“The victim was in serious condition with major trauma,” Gaulrapp said. “We needed to get him out as soon as possible.”
Firefighters initially suspected the teen was inside a tower on the Queens side of the bridge after finding an open hatch there, Gaulrapp said. After determining the teen wasn’t there, firefighters searched the bridge tower by tower until they came across another open hatch — this time splattered with blood and with a shoe beside it.
“It’s our estimate that he fell 50 feet inside the tower,” Gaulrapp said. “It was a very tight space.”
After assessing the victim, firefighters strapped the teen to a Spec-Pak harness system and pulled him to safety.
“Once we laid eyes on them, the adrenaline that was felt, it was moving,” said Firefighter Khalid Lee, who went down the shaft after the injured teen. “But this is what we trained for, and I just continued to descend and try to find the person.”
The teen later admitted he wanted to record his stunt with plans to post it on TikTok, officials said.
Medics rushed him to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell, where he was listed in critical but stable condition, FDNY officials said.
More than 75 FDNY and EMS members, as well as members of FDNY’s Rescue 1 participated in the save, Corrado said.
The bridge connecting Long Island City, Queens, and the Upper East Side was officially renamed the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge in 2011.
