There was an electrical fault in the motor system in the cable car. (representative)
Geneva:
Helicopters were used on Thursday to evacuate nearly 300 people from a high mountain station in the Swiss Alps after a cable car to the top broke down.
At around 11 a.m. (09:00 GMT), a technical problem was discovered with a cable car to the popular Glacier 3000 ski area in southwestern Switzerland’s Les Diablerets mountain massif, the station master said.
“There was an electrical fault in the motor system in the second (cable car) section to the top,” Glacier 3000 chief executive Bernhard Tschannen told AFP.
“It wasn’t a big deal. No one got hurt,” he said.
He explained that the cable car was equipped with a special motor for such occasions, which made it possible to evacuate the tourists on board.
Initially, the tourists at the top station, located at an altitude of 2,971 meters (9,747 feet), were asked to simply wait and enjoy the spectacular view while the technical staff tried to solve the problem.
“The weather was beautiful,” said Mr Tschannen, adding that people had been served drinks and food at the mountaintop restaurant while waiting.
But shortly before 1 p.m., the decision was made to evacuate the station, he said.
About 270 people, most of them tourists, were taken by chairlift to the glacier below, where they were picked up by helicopter.
Two helicopters were deployed for the operation, taking people to the mid station where they could take the still working chair lift on the first leg back down to Col Du Pillon, at 1,546 meters above sea level.
Mr Tschannen said the evacuation took less than two hours. Some technical staff had remained at the top to continue working to resolve the issue.
“We hope that everything will be back to normal tomorrow and that we can open normally, but that has yet to be confirmed,” he said.
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