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

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

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. 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 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. 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. 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.
More than a hundred tourists in the French Alps spend an evening suspended in midair inside cable cars that ceased to move.