Rescuers aboard French and Italian helicopters used cables to drop down onto the tops of the dangling cars, and lifted out passengers one by one.
Advertisement
Jules Blanc, 25, Valery Delisle, 52, and his two sons Clément, 24 and Louis, 20, are among those rescued by Alpine rescuers from a cable vehicle where they were trapped all night in the French Alps. The cars stalled out between two mountains near the Chamonix ski resort.
Aiguille du Midi peak in the Mont-Blanc region.
By morning, the cable auto system had been repaired and the gondolas were sent into motion again.
Officials said that about 70 of those trapped in the cars were rescued on Thursday night by helicopter but around 30 people which included a 10-year-old child were forced to spend the night after the rescue was thwarted by fog.
People who spent a night in cable cars are escorted by rescuers before being brought to the ground in Courmayeur. Freelance journalist Stefan de Vries is in Paris with the latest.
Another 12 people were evacuated during the night by rescuers using ropes.
Chamonix Mayor Eric Fournier said earlier on BFM television that “there’s nothing fundamentally to fear”. “I talked to them after we got off. the mom was in a state of shock”. “I threw up. I wasn’t feeling good”. So we weren’t scared, but the cold was a big problem, at least for me. “There was a Korean family in front of us, I think they were the ones the most in trouble”.
Delisle also mentioned that there was a Korean family in the cable vehicle ahead of them, whom Delisle had said were in greater trouble because they did not understand the language and thus did not comprehend what was happening.
Louis’ brother Clement, 24, told reporters how they had to shout to a Korean family in the cable auto next to theirs to explain to them where to find the blankets. Clément had said that around two a.m. they started to realize that in fact, the glacier mountain was quite cold.
The incident comes five years after about 40 people were stuck for almost seven hours on the Grande-Motte cable auto in the south-eastern French Alps after it broke down.
“The cable cars stopped working after their cables became crossed”, she reports.
The panoramic Vallée Blanche Cable Car connects Aiguille du Midi on the French side of the mountain to Pointe Helbronner on the Italian border. He said he and his friends and family had been on the cable vehicle for about 10 minutes when it stopped unexpectedly near l’Aiguille du Midi. Some passengers were rescued by helicopter that day, but others had to stay in the cars overnight until it was safe enough for the rescue team to get them.
Rescuers provided blankets, food and water to help weather the chilly mountain night-time conditions.
Advertisement
Journalists surround a rescued tourist who was trapped overnight in a cable auto. “I was also surprised that the attendants opened the door to the cable vehicle when the cable auto was still swinging to and fro when it came into the landing bay”.
