More than 100 tourists were trapped in the Mont Blanc region of France on Thursday evening when the cable auto service they were using developed a snag, reported AFP.
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Dozens of tourists had to spend the night in cable cars suspended over the mountain when the machines stopped working.
Twelve people were rescued late Thursday night because their cable cars were hanging low enough that rescue workers could get to them safely, said Iaian Cleaver, an employee of Mont-Blanc Company, which owns the cable auto service.
“The extent of this rescue operation is simply unbelievable”, Col. Frederic Labrunye, commander of the local gendarmerie, told the AP.
However, local television stations have reported that the cables had become tangled in high winds. “We called the operators who explained that three cables got snarled up and they had to be untangled but they didn’t manage to do it”, an unnamed man who was one of the first tourists to be rescued told French radio.
Fournier said 65 people were rescued overall Thursday, and another 12 were brought down overnight using “Plan B”.
Helicopters had to carefully fly over the cables, which is risky itself, then lower a rescuer onto an area “not larger than a table”, strap on passengers one by one and extract them, he said, describing it as “air surgery”. Emergency workers spent the night with the stranded stranded tourists, giving them blankets, warm clothing and food.
The high-altitude cars – which connect France’s Aiguille de Midi peak to Italy’s Pointe Helbronner – were carrying around 110 people when their cables became entangled on Thursday.
In a statement supplied to BuzzFeed News, cable auto operator Compagnie du Mont-Blanc said that the incident happened as a result of the haulage cable and the suspension cable becoming crossed, which can occur as part of a sudden stop or in strong winds.
French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the cars had stalled due to a “technical incident”.
The terraces of Aiguille du Midi, which is nearly 12,400 feet high, offer a 360-degree view of the French, Swiss and Italian Alps.
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Mathieu Dechavanne, the head of the cable auto company, said it appeared that cables had crossed around “for unexplained reasons” but probably as a result of strong gusts of wind. The three-mile (5km) journey usually takes about 30 minutes to complete.
