After Cable Cars Got Stuck In The Alps, Dozens Spent Night Suspended In Midair

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On Thursday night, a series of cable cars traveling over the Mont Blanc Alpine Massif stopped working — leaving more than 100 tourists stranded, NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports.

Helicopter crews managed to extract 65 of the trapped people in a delicate rescue operation. But by the time night fell the helicopters had to stop, leaving dozens more people, including a 10-year-old child, dangling in the gondolas overnight.

By morning, the cable car system had been repaired and the gondolas were sent into motion again. All the tourists are now safe, The Associated Press reports.

Enlarge this image toggle caption Luca Bruno/AP Luca Bruno/AP

The cable car crosses between mountain peaks in France and Italy, near the towns of Chamonix, France, and Courmayeur, Italy.

"The panoramic cable cars rise to an altitude of 12,000 feet, and are operated in the summer season with large numbers of tourists and climbers," Eleanor says.

"The cable cars stopped working after their cables became crossed," she reports. "Officials believe strong winds may have caused the cables to become tangled."

That was around 4 p.m. local time. Helicopter rescue operations soon began — but they were risky, the AP reports:

" '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 ... in the heart of one of the largest glaciers in Europe, over a distance of five kilometers of cable with 36 cabins.' "Helicopters had to delicately fly over the cable, which is risky itself, then lower a rescuer on to an area 'not larger than a table,' strap on passengers one by one and extract them, he said, describing it as 'air surgery.' "

Enlarge this image toggle caption Jean-Pierre Clatot/AFP/Getty Images Jean-Pierre Clatot/AFP/Getty Images

After helicopters were grounded, some people — those closest to the ground — were extracted by rescuers working from the glacier beneath them, the AP says.

The rest had to wait until morning.

It was a chilly night in the Alps, but the stranded tourists weren't alone as they waited out the high-altitude mishap.

"First aid workers bringing blankets and food spent the night in the gondolas with those trapped," Eleanor says.</s>COURMAYEUR, Italy: More than 30 tourists who spent a terrifying night in cable cars in the French Alps were set to be brought to the ground Friday, operators said.

A total of 110 people became trapped when the cable cars ground to a halt shortly before 4:00 pm (1400 GMT) Thursday at an altitude of 3,800 meters (12,500 feet) in the Mont Blanc region.

Seventy-seven people were rescued, including 48 airlifted out by helicopter in a delicate operation as darkness fell.

Thirty people in cable cars closest to the ground managed to climb down with the help of rescuers.

“The last hour seemed very, very long. 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.

But with darkness falling and the weather deteriorating, the rescue operation was suspended, leaving 33 tourists, one of them a 10-year-old child, forced to spend the night dangling in mid-air.

Shortly before 8:00 am (0600 GMT), news came that the cable cars had restarted.

“They resumed five minutes ago, the last cable (which was blocking the system) was untangled,” Mathieu Dechavanne, CEO of the Mont-Blanc Company that manages the system, told Agence France-Presse.

He said the remaining passengers could now be rescued without the use of helicopters.

Police said all the remaining passengers seemed in good health.

“We were in contact with them throughout the night, the people were cold” but there did not appear to be any health emergencies, the local police chief, Stephane Bozon, told Agence France-Presse..

The prefect of the Haute-Savoie region, Georges François Leclerc, said late Thursday that rescuers were forced to halt their operation at 8:45pm as they could not “guarantee the safety of the pilots, rescuers and the people stuck in the cars”.

During the night, a team of five rescuers, three French and two Italian police officers also attempted to reach the trapped tourists.

One of the officers managed to get into a car which contained a 10-year-old child.

Those still stuck had access to emergency blankets, energy bars and bottles of water in the cars.

Each cable car holds just four passengers. They connect Aiguille du Midi on the French side of the mountains with Pointe Helbronner on the Italian border.

The incident was caused by cables that got crossed for “unknown reasons”, but a gust of wind is thought to have played a part, Dechavanne said on Thursday.

The employees of the company were not able to repair the cars, forcing an evacuation operation to begin around 5:00pm.

The cable cars offer panoramic views of Mont Blanc, which straddles the French-Italian border.

The incident comes five years after around 40 people were stuck for nearly seven hours on the Grande-Motte cable car in the southeastern French Alps after it broke down.

They were evacuated through trap doors in the floor of the cars, using ropes to reach the ground 40 meters (130 feet) below. AFP</s>More than 30 tourists who spent a dramatic night stranded in cable cars above the French Alps were brought to the ground on Friday after an 18-hour ordeal, operators said.

They were the last of 110 sightseers trapped when the cable cars ground to a halt on Thursday afternoon in the shadow of Mont Blanc, western Europe’s loftiest peak.

After a night in the frozen dark, dangling at an altitude of 3,800 metres (12,500 feet), the string of cars lurched into movement at around 8 a.m. (0600 GMT).

The incident was caused by cables that got crossed for “unknown reasons”, but a gust of wind is thought to have played a part, said Mathieu Dechavanne, boss of the Mont-Blanc Company which manages the system.

The cars were restarted after the last cable was untangled, he told AFP.

The 33 remaining passengers were able to reach the ground by exiting the cars at three points on the way down, an official said.

Teams on Thursday had been able to rescue 77 passengers, most of them by helicopters and others who were able to climb down with help.

But as darkness fell and the weather deteriorated, the operation was suspended, leaving the remaining tourists, one of them a 12-year-old boy, to spend the night suspended in mid-air.

The boy’s sister, Italian tourist Maria Elena Perrone (18), was rescued on Thursday but then had an agonising wait for news of her brother and parents who were in a different cable car.

“It was terrible. My brother had to stay up there with my parents and they were only wearing sweatshirts. When the Sun set, it was cold,” she told AFP, sobbing.

“For two and a half hours we didn’t know what had happened and the cable car was moving a lot when they were trying to untangle the cables.”</s>More than 100 people were trapped in cable cars suspended more than 3,000 metres above the French Alps after high winds reportedly resulted in a mechanical failure.

Dozens of tourists were at the centre of a dramatic rescue operation in Mont Blanc on Wednesday as a rescue helicopter was scrambled to the scene.

Police said 110 people became trapped in the panoramic Vallee Blanche Cable Car that rises to an altitude of 3,778 metres (12,395ft) just before 5.30pm.

The cable car connects the famed Aiguille du Midi peak to the Pointe Helbronner and takes 30-35 minutes.

The cause behind the fault is unknown at this stage but initial reports suggested high winds may have caused the cable cars to become stuck.

Le Dauphine reported 65 people have been rescued mid-air after French, Italian and Swiss emergency teams launched an operation.

The website said the operation had been suspended for the night but food, water and survival blankets had been distributed.

Large numbers of tourists visit the attraction for spectacular close-up views of the Mont Blanc range, western Europe’s tallest mountains.

Mathieu Dechavanne, chief executive of the company which manages the cable cars, told La Vanguardia: 'This will take some time but the weather is good.

“We are in contact with customers. They have water and means to communicate.”

Chamonix mayor Eric Fournier added: "There's nothing fundamentally to fear".</s>More than 100 people were left trapped in panoramic cable cars close to Mont Blanc in the Alps this afternoon.

A rescue operation was mounted and French and Italian rescue services are evacuating the reported 110 sightseers in Chamonix.

Initial reports from the French-Italian border suggest a mechanical failure was to blame, but this has yet to be confirmed.

It happened on a cable connecting the Aiguille du Midi station in France to the Italian Punta Helbronner at around 5.25pm.

It is thought 25 cable cars were left suspended 3,800 metres in the air.

Italian news service R.it reports that strong winds may have caused the cable cars to stop.

The winds may have made the wires which support the cabin cars cross

Eric Fornier, the Mayor of Chamonix, told BFMTV that rescuers, supported by their Italian counterparts, are working to bring the trapped people to safety.

And Frédéric Maurer, 49, one of the first passengers to be rescued along with his daughter and son after the intervention of the Mountain Rescue Service, said: 'We were in the cab for two-and-a-half hours locked under the sun.

'We had just started from flagship station Helbronner on the Italian side, when everything froze.'

Mathieu Dechavanne, chief executive of the company which manages the cable cars, said the operation to get people down is likely to take a while.

He told La Vanguardia: 'This will take some time but the weather is good.

'We are in contact with customers. They have water and means to communicate.'</s>A ten-year-old child was among dozens of tourists rescued today after spending the night stranded in cable cars dangling above the Mont Blanc mountain range.

The rescue mission in the French Alps restarted at dawn and returned the 33 people to safety after they became trapped at an altitude of about 3,800m (12,468ft) yesterday afternoon, apparently when cables became tangled in high winds.

Sixty-five people, including US, French and Italian tourists, were rescued yesterday by helicopter before night fell over Europe’s highest mountains.

A dozen were brought down from the four-person gondolas by rescuers using ropes.

Clouds hampered visibility last night in conditions which rescuers said made for “a very complex operation”.

The remainder were provided with blankets and food as they awaited the resumption of rescue attempts at 5.30am.

They were taken to Chamonix in France and the Italian town of Courmayeur.

It is believed rescuers were this morning able to complete the process of untangling the cables and the tourists were brought down in the cable cars, without the need for a helicopter evacuation.

Antoine Burnet, from cable car operator Compagnie Du Mont Blanc, praised the professionalism of the rescuers and the “exemplary conduct” and calmness” of those trapped.

He described the rescue operation as “serene”.

Stéphane Bozon, the rescue commander from the Chamonix Gendarmerie, said: “We were in touch with them all night. The people were cold but there was no vital distress.”

The cables had crossed at three points on the three mile route between Aiguille du Midi in France and Pointe Helbronner in Italy. The panoramic ride over glaciers usually takes 30 minutes to complete.

Kathy Cook, a tourist from Michigan, who was rescued last night, said: “We were there almost 10 hours in the cable car. The cable car left about 2:30 in the afternoon and it was just before midnight when they finally brought us out of the gondolas, which was really quite an experience.

“The helicopter rescue failed because the fog moved in, so we had to just wait and then they decided they could bring us safely to the ground, and we walked up the glacier to the hut.”

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

“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 ... in the heart of one of the largest glaciers in Europe, over a distance of 5km of cable with 36 cabins.”</s>Dozens of tourists, including three children, have been rescued after being trapped overnight in cable cars dangling above the slopes of Mont Blanc in the Alps.

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 yesterday morning, after emergency workers managed to untangle cables that had jammed on 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, at very slow speeds and under close surveillance, and delivered the passengers to the nearest ground stations, mayor Eric Fournier said. The passengers were then flown by helicopter to Chamonix and the Italian town of Courmayeur.

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

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 Colonel 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 in the heart of one of the largest glaciers in Europe, over a distance of 5km of cable with 36 cabins.”

Helicopters had to carefully fly over the cables, which is risky itself, then lower a rescuer on to an area “not larger than a table”, strap on passengers one by one and extract them, he said, describing it as “air surgery”.

Then fog descended and darkness started to fall, and authorities called off the helicopter rescue. So they switched to “Plan B,” Mr Fournier said.

Mountain guides identified the cable cars closest to the ground, and used climbing ropes to carry passengers to the surface of the glacier below, one by one. From there, rescuers brought the passengers by foot to the nearest mountain station.

Fournier said 65 people were rescued overall on Thursday, and another 12 were brought down overnight using “Plan B”.

The remaining 33 people were in cable cars too high off the ground, so they stayed overnight. They included a seven-year-old and nine-year-old from Korea and a ten-year-old Italian child.

“They didn’t get a lot of sleep, but they were warm under blankets and with their families,” Mr Fournier said.

Five rescuers stayed overnight in the cable cars and provided blankets, food and water.</s>A rescue operation has resumed to free tourists who spent the night trapped in cable cars suspended above the French Alps.

Efforts to save the group were halted last night when conditions became too dangerous for rescue helicopters.

110 tourists became stuck on the 35-minute 5km cable car trip over the Vallée Blanche at 5.25pm yesterday.

Rescue efforts saw 65 people freed before night fell. The remainder, including a child aged 10, had to stay in the cabins overnight.

The journey links the Aiguille du Midi, a 3842 metre peak above Chamonix, France, to the Point Helbronner, a 3462 metre peak in Italy.

At 11.30pm a helicopter could still be seen above the site making efforts to distribute emergency supplies and rescue remaining victims.

Speaking to a French television station during the rescue, Eric Fournier, the Mayor of Chamonix, said: “People who are stuck in the cabins are being evacuated by helicopter.

“There are no fundamental concerns. The rescuers, supported by their Italian counterparts, are implementing with speed and efficiency all the necessary operations to bring these people back into the valley.

"It has happened in the heart of Mont Blanc so, by character, it was quite spectacular.”

There was speculation that a problem with the cables had caused the breakdown.

The nationalities of those who remained trapped was not known.

There were French, American and Italian tourists among those rescued on Thursday.

France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve praised the “courage” of the French and Italian rescuers.

He said: “They are engaged in a delicate operation to rescue 110 people trapped following a technical incident.”

The tourists had accessed the Panoramic Mont Blanc cabins, open from June to the end of September, from either the Helbronner in Italy or the Aiguille du Midi in France.

The two peaks have their own cable car system connecting them to their nearby villages.

The French Téléphérique de l'Aiguille du Midi connects the peak of Aiguille du Midi to the village of Chamonix, while the Italian Skyway Monte Bianco connects the peak of Pointe Helbronner to the village of La Palud, just north of Courmayeur near the Mont Blanc Tunnel.

The Panoramic Mont Blanc cable car tourist attraction linking the two countries was opened in 1958.

There are 12 groups of three cabins which seat four people each.

They are pulled by a haulage rope of 10,200 metres in a single loop.

The cabins run from the Aiguille du Midi station over the Vallée Blanche glacier and the Glacier du Géant glacier to the Helbronner station.

Although the cables sag by some 255 m, the cabins still have a clearance of some 300 m to the glacier underneath.</s>Dozens of tourists, including a 10-year-old child, were safely rescued Friday after being trapped in cable cars dangling above the slopes of Mont Blanc in the Alps overnight.

The mountain rescue service in the French city of Chamonix said cables that had become entangled Thursday were repaired, and the cable cars were able to resume operation Friday morning.

The travelers were brought to Chamonix and the Italian town of Courmayeur.

A series of cable cars got stuck after the cables tangled at 3,600 meters altitude, prompting a major rescue operation. The interior minister said 65 people were rescued Thursday night, but 45 had to be left there overnight after rescue operations were halted because of rough flight conditions for helicopters and darkness.

Five rescuers stayed overnight in the cable cars and provided blankets, food and water to help weather the chilly mountain nighttime conditions.

Those who were brought down Thursday night described an extraordinarily tense and risky rescue operation.

"We were there almost 10 hours in the cable car. The cable car left about 2:30 in the afternoon and it was just before midnight when they finally brought us out of the gondolas, which was really quite an experience," said Kathy Cook, a tourist from Michigan.

"The helicopter rescue failed because the fog moved in, so we had to just wait and then they decided they could bring us safely to the ground, and we walked up the glacier to the hut," she said upon arrival in Courmayeur.

When the fog moved in, the helicopter effort was called off, and rescuers concentrated on bringing down people whose cable cars were closest to the ground, Italian rescuer Mario Mochet said. Rescuers on the glacier below helped transfer them to a shelter on the slopes before they were brought further down the mountains.

"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 ... in the heart of one of the largest glaciers in Europe, over a distance of five kilometers of cable with 36 cabins."

Helicopters had to delicately fly over the cable, which is risky itself, then lower a rescuer on to an area "not larger than a table," strap on passengers one by one and extract them, he said, describing it as "air surgery."

The cable car, which offers spectacular up-close views of Western Europe's tallest mountains and deep valleys below, connects the Aiguille de Midi peak in France, at 3,842 meters (12,605 feet), to Pointe Helbronner in Italy, at 3,462 meters (11,358 feet).

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Don't be like Gary Johnson: 8 things you should know about Aleppo, including what it is</s>Paris (AP) — A series of cable cars carrying tourists stopped working at high altitude over the Mont Blanc massif in the Alps on Thursday, prompting a major rescue operation and leaving 45 people trapped in midair overnight, France’s interior minister said.

Four helicopters were deployed after 110 people became stuck when the cable cars stalled because of a “technical incident,” Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said. He said the helicopters rescued 65 people before the efforts were suspended for the night because of rough flight conditions.

First aid workers were transported to the site and will be spending the night in the cable cars with those who are trapped, Cazeneuve said. Rescuers provided blankets, food and water to help weather the chilly mountain conditions overnight.

The cable car, which offers spectacular up-close views of Western Europe’s tallest mountains and deep valleys below, connects the Aiguille de Midi peak in France, at 3,842 meters (12,605 feet), to Pointe Helbronner in Italy, at 3,462 meters (11,358 feet).

Cables carrying the Panoramic Mont Blanc cars reportedly tangled around 4 p.m. (1400 GMT). Workers from the operating company tried to untangle the lines but failed. They alerted authorities and French and Italian mountain rescue specialists were brought by helicopter to evacuate passengers.

Passengers were transferred to other cable cars that brought them down the mountain to Courmayeur in Italy. Descending from the cable cars, one passenger told reporters “it ended well” despite five or six hours suspended midair in cold mountain conditions.

French police said the evacuation was suspended at 9:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. EDT, 1930 GMT), and will resume Friday at 7:15 a.m. (0515 GMT, 1:15 a.m. EDT).

Chamonix Mayor Eric Fournier said earlier on BFM television that “there’s nothing fundamentally to fear.”

The cable car journey normally takes 30-35 minutes. The Panoramic Cable Car is operated in the summer season, when large numbers of climbers and tourists converge on the area. Another series of cable cars takes skiers and visitors to the peak of the Aiguille de Midi year-round.
More than a hundred tourists in the French Alps spend an evening suspended in midair inside cable cars that ceased to move.