Queensboro Bridge Teen Stuck in Shaft Hours before 911 Call: Report

Details remain murky regarding a 16-year-old boy who was rescued on Feb. 16 from the bottom of a 50-foot workers’ maintenance shaft on the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge after apparently slipping off a ladder.

Reports speculated he was trying to film a TikTok video that went bad. Several posters on a reddit site said the boy identified only as “Frankie” was at the bottom of the shaft for hours before 911 was called and that up to three companions fled after he fell.

“Frankie fell or got pushed or something inside the shaft and he got left alone for 4-6 hours,” wrote one poster on a reddit site.

One poster on the reddit thread said his friend fell around 3 p.m. and the companions fled. One poster said that the companions took the victim’s cell phone.

A girl who was following some of the online posts on What’s App finally called 911.

Police said they responded to a 911 call at 5:46 p.m. If the 3 p.m. time of fall is correct, it means “frankie” was in the shaft for nearly three hours by the time the first call was made to 911.

Even after a 911 call was placed, first responders still had to search on the bridge for the youth had fallen. It was not until 9 p.m. that first responders noticed a sneaker and blood at the top of one of the buttresses.

The teen was on the bridge’s lower level near Roosevelt Island earlier in the day, climbing a section of the structure reportedly as part of an online stunt. The victim told police he had been with friends filming at Tik Tok challenge, but they left him after he fell CBS News+1.

First responders around 9 p.m. found a shoe near an open hatch in one of the bridge’s buttresses which led them to the youth.

A poster on social media said that when the victim first fell, he could be heard moaning in pain and pleading for help at the bottom of the shaft.

Once he was located, it still took first responders several hours to hoist him out. By that time, the victim was suffering from hypothermia and possibly other undisclosed injuries sustained in the fall.

When he was initially transported, a police dispatcher described him as a “red tag patient,” which means a patient is critically injured and needs immediate medical attention. Subsequent reports said he was in critical but stable condition.

FDNY deputy inspector Nicholas Corrado, at a press event shortly after the rescue was completed, gave details of the rescue but not on the identity of the victim, why the youth was there or how long he had been at the bottom of the shaft before rescuers could reach him. Corrado noted that the rescue was a “confined space operation, which is a very difficult, time consuming, manpower intensive operation.” He said it involved about ten pieces of equipment. “It involves high angle equipment, ropes, we have to monitor air and create high points.”

When pressed for further info at the brief, Feb. 16 press conference, he said only: “PD will be doing an investigation.”

About 75 firefighters and EMS responded, he said as well as the NYPD. Police boats were in the East River while an NYPD helicopter circled overhead.

“They left the boy to die,” said reddit poster identified as “Spefic-Hunter-7265.” “I know the kids name but won’t say it for privacy reasons.”

The post continued, “4 kids one fell 50 feet down a shaft as they were trying to exit the top of the bridge. I saw a video since I am pretty familiar with the urbex community of the three boys recording down the hatch to see him. you can hear the boy screaming and moaning in pain begging for help. Instead of calling for EMS they went down took his phone and left him to die. About 4 hours later someone in a group chat hear (sic) word of mouth of what happend (sic) and called 911.”

Efforts to contact that poster were not successful.

As of Feb. 18, two days after the fall and rescue, the NYPD had no further comment on the incident. The victim was not named and his condition as he recovered could not be learned.