INSIDE EDITION was there for a moment of TV history as Regis Philbin ends his longtime career as host of one of the most successful television shows ever.
Screams of terror from three 12-year-old girls made a panicked 911 call. They were trapped under an elevator that was about to crush them.
Caller: "Please help us!"
911: "Oklahoma city 911. Hello? 911.
Caller: "Please, lift it off! Lift it off!"
"I thought I was going to die," said Ambri a student in Oklahoma city.
Caller: "We're trapped under an elevator!"
911: "I'm sorry?"
Caller: "Oh, god!"
Here's what happened. Savannah, Liz, and Ambri, are best friends in class at a middle school in Oklahoma City. The school has an old elevator and at lunch the girls decided to check it out because the door was open.
"Our friend said there was something cool to see, so we walked in and the door closed behind us and the elevator came down," said Liz.
The door locked behind them, and the terrified girls showed INSIDE EDITION how they lay down in the shaft as the 500-pound elevator was just inches from crushing them.
"When it started getting closer we tried to push it and it didn't stop. So then I grabbed out my cell phone and called 911," said Savannah.
Caller: "It came down on us. We're trapped under an elevator. Please help us, now!"
You'll never believe how the girls saved themselves. They used Savannah's combat boot as a wedge to stop the elevator just in time.
A teacher made this frantic 911 call:
Caller: "We need a rescue unit here we've got some little girls that got trapped underneath the elevator."
911: "Underneath?"
Caller: "It's an old-fashioned lift, so I don't know."
911: "Are they hurt?"
Caller: "They're terrified."
The girls were rescued forty minutes later. Ambri injured her leg and is using a walker for a few days, but Savannah, and Liz weren't hurt.
They say they'll know better than to go exploring in an elevator shaft ever again.
School officials say they aren't upset with the girls. Turns out the elevator missed its required inspections for the past two years, and that the door to the broken lift should have been locked and wasn't.
