Man Dies After Falling into Ventilation Shaft While Trying to Retrieve Dropped Phone

Stock photos of a mobile phone (left) and a ventilation shaft. / Tiko Aramyan-shutterstock.com, Channel A

A man in his 40s was found dead in a five-story deep ventilation shaft in the middle of Gangnam, Seoul, late at night.

According to Channel A on the 15th, around 11 p.m. on the 11th, a man in his 40s fell into a ventilation shaft next to the sidewalk while trying to pick up a dropped mobile phone near Yeoksam Station in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

The ventilation shaft was five stories deep. The man was found by a security guard of a nearby building around 5 p.m. the next day. The guard reported to the police that he saw a faint object down the ventilation shaft.

The police and fire department found the man on the floor of the five-story underground mechanical parking lot, but he was already dead.

Police believe that the man, who had been drinking, dropped his phone into the ventilation shaft and fell while trying to open the cover to retrieve it.

After the ventilation shaft fall accident in Pangyo, Gyeonggi, in 2014, where 16 people died and 11 were injured, the government required ventilation shafts to be built at least 6.56 feet above the ground or have access blocking facilities if they are less than that height. This applies only to ventilation shafts installed after 2015 and the place where the accident occurred this time was built before that and was completely unprotected.

Also, the ventilation shaft where the accident occurred this time was designed to be easily opened by the public.