Tourists rescued from cable cars in the Alps

CHAMONIX, FRANCE: Dozens of tourists, including three children, were rescued Friday after being trapped overnight in cable cars dangling above the slopes of Mont

CHAMONIX, FRANCE: Dozens of tourists, including three children, were rescued Friday after being trapped overnight in cable cars dangling above the slopes of Mont Blanc in the Alps.

HT Image

Their return to land ended an extraordinarily complex and vertiginous rescue effort over two days amid the spectacular but dangerous landscape of Western Europe’s tallest mountains.

The last passengers were brought down Friday morning, after emergency workers managed to untangle cables that had jammed Thursday, according to the mayor of the French town of Chamonix.

With the cables now straightened, the cable cars were able to resume their journey Friday, at very slow speeds and under close surveillance, and delivered the passengers to the nearest ground stations, Mayor Eric Fournier said.

They were then flown by helicopter to Chamonix and the Italian town of Courmayeur.

The ordeal began Thursday afternoon, when cables on the Panoramic Mont Blanc cable car service got twisted, trapping 110 people in a string of cars at 3,800 meters altitude.

French and Italian helicopters flew in rescuers who dropped down on cables onto the tops of the cars, and lifted out passengers one by one.

“The extent of this rescue operation is simply unbelievable,” said Col. Frederic Labrunye, commander of the provincial gendarmerie group of Haute-Savoie.

“By the volume of people to rescue - we rarely rescue 110 people at the same time in high mountain - and by the environment in which it happens.”