A mother plummeted to her death in a seven-story elevator fall while her husband desperately fought to save her from outside the malfunctioning lift in Tarsus, Turkey, on September 30, 2025.
Pelin Yasot Kiyga was leaving her seventh-floor apartment for work when she entered the elevator in her 11-story residential building in the Altaylilar district of Tarsus, located in Turkey’s Mersin province. The elevator immediately malfunctioned, trapping her inside.
Security camera footage captured the harrowing moments as Kiyga called her husband, 34-year-old Gokhan Kiyga, to inform him she was stuck. The video shows Gokhan rushing to the elevator doors, frantically attempting to pry them open while speaking to his wife on his cell phone.
As Gokhan worked alongside two other men to resolve the problem, pressing buttons and tugging at the elevator controls, a loud crash suddenly echoed through the building. The elevator cabin had jammed before plummeting down the shaft, carrying with it heavy concrete counterweights that accelerated the deadly fall.
The footage shows Gokhan’s desperate final attempts to reach his wife before the devastating realization set in. He was seen holding his head in his hands before racing down the stairs to the basement where the elevator had crashed.
During his frantic rescue attempt, Gokhan injured his foot as he struggled to save his wife. Emergency services including paramedics and police arrived within minutes of the incident.
Firefighters extracted Pelin from the elevator wreckage and transported her to the district state hospital. Despite medical intervention, she was pronounced dead from her injuries. The young mother from Mersin leaves behind one child.
The Tarsus District Governorate confirmed the incident in an official statement. The agency indicated that their citizen was seriously injured as a result of the concrete blocks of the elevator cabin weight accelerating towards the top of the elevator cabin and falling to the ground together with the cabin, and lost her life despite all interventions in the hospital.
The Tarsus Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened a comprehensive investigation into Kiyga’s death. Police have questioned 17 people in connection with the case, including representatives from the elevator company, the property manager, and maintenance supervisors.
Three individuals have been taken into custody as part of the investigation. Those arrested include the former company manager responsible for the elevator’s maintenance, the current manager, and the building’s site manager.
A disturbing pattern of negligence emerged during the investigation. Residents of the building had been reporting elevator malfunctions for more than a month prior to the fatal accident through their WhatsApp group. These complaints highlighted ongoing technical problems that apparently went unaddressed.
The exact cause of the elevator failure remains under investigation, according to authorities. The incident has raised serious questions about maintenance standards and safety protocols in residential buildings.
Gokhan stated that he “tried to pull her out of the lift until the last moment,” reflecting the desperate nature of his rescue attempt.
The tragedy occurred in the early morning hours as Pelin was beginning her routine commute to work. The couple had been living in the residential complex with their child when the mechanical failure turned an ordinary day into an unthinkable disaster.
Elevator safety experts note that such catastrophic failures are extremely rare, typically occurring in roughly one out of every 10 million rides globally. Most modern elevator systems include multiple safety mechanisms designed to prevent free-fall scenarios, including emergency braking systems, counterweights, and automatic stop functions.
The investigation continues as authorities work to determine whether mechanical failure, inadequate maintenance, or regulatory violations contributed to the fatal accident that claimed Kiyga’s life and left her family devastated.
