A California family heard cracking noises while they were on the 103rd floor of Willis Tower in Chicago on Wednesday night.
On the Skydeck, the family was out on the all-glass enclosure known as The Ledge when they heard cracking noise and thought the glass was breaking beneath their feet, reports WGN News. "We were there for 30, 45 seconds, maybe a minute at most, and as we're getting up to get out because they were soon to close, the deck just cracked beneath us," Alejandro Garibay said.
Though Garibay family thought it was the glass, a Willis Tower spokesman said it was really the protective coating that was cracking. "The Ledge was designed with a protective coating that completely covers all glass surfaces to protect against scratches," Brian Rehme explained in a statement.
Speaking with the Chicago Sun-Times, another spokesman, Bill Utter, said that this isn't the first time the coating has cracked, though it's usually because "a visitor has something sharp in his pocket or hand that shatters the coating."
The rest of the Skydeck as well as other platforms remain open as workers look to examine and repair the cracked protective coating on the one platform the Garibays were on.