ORLANDO, Fla. -- Channel 9 Eyewitness News learned the nightclub elevator that malfunctioned and injured a young woman Tuesday night was being operated without a license.

Eyewitnesses said the elevator door somehow came off its track on the second floor of Club Cairo near Central and Magnolia. When the woman leaned on the door, she tumbled into the void and landed on the roof of the elevator car ten feet below. The broken door dangled above her.

Channel 9 Eyewitness News later learned the elevator’s certificate of operation expired in 2000 and hadn’t been re-issued.

Elevator enforcement is complicated. Cities do not police them; rather, it’s up to a tiny branch of Florida’s Division of Hotels and Restaurants to sign off on the work of independent contractors, who conduct the actual inspections.

Club Cairo would not let Channel 9 onto their premises, so there’s no word on whether the elevator’s still being used. The club was not required to report the incident for five days.

There’s also no requirement that an elevator be re-inspected once it’s repaired after an accident.

Still, operating an elevator without a certificate is a second-degree misdemeanor, and the state promised to investigate Club Cairo and building owner Cameron Kuhn.

Neither returned telephone calls for comment.