On Friday, emergency crews were able to rescue more than 100 people- including several American tourists-trapped in cable cars over the French Alps due to a technical malfunction.
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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. The passengers were then escorted by foot to the nearest mountain station.
After helicopters were grounded, some people – those closest to the ground – were extracted by rescuers working from the glacier beneath them, the AP says.
Fournier said 65 people were rescued overall Thursday, and another 12 were brought down overnight using “Plan B”.
“We were there nearly 10 hours in the cable auto”, Kathy Cook, an American tourist from MI, told The Associated Press after she was among the first group to be lowered to the ground. The remaining 33 people were in cable cars too high off the ground for plan B, so they had to stay there overnight. They included a 7-year-old and 9-year-old from Korea and a 10-year-old Italian child.
“The extent of this rescue operation is simply unbelievable”, said Col. Frederic Labrunye, commander of the provincial gendarmerie group of Haute-Savoie. “It was just before midnight when they finally belayed us out of the gondolas which was really quite an experience”.
Three cable cars of the Panoramic Mont Blanc cable vehicle dangle after getting stuck Thursday, in this aerial view taken from a helicopter, Friday, Sept. 9, 2016.
Louis Delisle, a 23-year-old who was on the cable vehicle with his father, Valery Delisle, told Reuters his health struggled while waiting overnight to be rescued.
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The 45 visitors stuck overnight in the chilly conditions were given blankets, cereal bars, and water to help stave off the elements. The three-mile (5km) journey usually takes about 30 minutes to complete. Almost 110 people were initially stranded in the cable cars near the Chamonix ski resort after the cars stalled due to tangled cables.
