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AROUND 33 TOURISTS, including a 10-year-old child, spent the night stuck in cable cars thousands of metres up among the glaciers of Mont Blanc ahead of an expected rescue operation this morning, officials said.
The cable cars got stuck at 3:40pm yesterday at an altitude of 3,800 metres (12,500 feet) in the French Alps after an unexplained technical incident, initially with 110 people on board.
Seventy-seven people were evacuated, including 48 who were airlifted out by helicopter and around 30 travelling in cars closest to the ground who were able to climb down with the help of rescuers.
The remaining tourists were forced to spend the night dangling in mid-air at high altitude and in deteriorating weather conditions after the rescue operation was suspended.
The prefect of the Haute-Savoie region, Georges François Leclerc, said the rescue mission would recommence at 6:30am today if weather conditions allowed.
“We were forced to stop rescue operations at 8:45pm” for safety reasons, the dark and the weather making it too dangerous, he said, adding that they were not able to “guarantee the safety of the pilots, rescuers and the people stuck in the cars”.
“We hope to be able to evacuate everyone (this) morning first thing. We have done all we possibly could” this evening, he added, describing the mission as “very complicated”.
Twelve people were later evacuated by Italian rescuers, he told AFP.
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 have access to emergency blankets, energy bars and bottles of water in the cars.
‘Very difficult’
The incident was caused by cables that got crossed for “unknown reasons”, but a gust of wind is thought to have played a part, Mathieu Dechavanne, CEO of the Mont-Blanc Company that manages the cable cars, told AFP.
The employees of the company were not able to repair the cars, forcing an evacuation operation to begin around 5:00pm yesterday evening.
The cable cars connect Aiguille du Midi on the French side of the mountains with Pointe Helbronner on the Italian border, where the rescued passengers were taken.
Weather conditions were at first good but later deteriorated turning cloudy at the high altitudes.
“The last hour was very, very long. We called the (Mont-Blanc) company, who explained to us that three cables had become tangled and there was only one left to un-cross but they weren’t able to do it,” a tourist told local radio station France Bleu Pays de Savoie.
“They tried to evacuate us but it was very difficult. I had to close my eyes for a good while and try to think about something else,” he added.
The rescue operation involved four helicopters from France and Italy.
The cable cars, which carry four passengers each, 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 metres (130 feet) below.
- © AFP 2016.
There is rapid testing on arrival in many European countries, I wonder why it’s not available here? There must be a political reason why the government isn’t even talking about its adoption. Any ideas?
@Giovanni Giusti: lack of willingness to spend the money. Lack of sufficient tests levels as it is. Lack of imagination when it comes to other testing methods.
@Aidan O’ Neill: Our public health experts don’t like antigen testing according to the Taoiseach
It will take time? Why is that? Why does everything have to take an eternity and why should we be dependent on the U.K. ‘s acceptance ? I couldn’t care less what the U.K. do or not.
@Isabel Oliveira: you should Isabel. They generate massive income into this country through trade, tourism and diaspora travel. You don’t have to like but you need to understand the economics.
@Gary Sheahan: the uk will shortly be outside the EU, we will not. We need to adopt this system regardless of their stance. Our hospitality sector depends significantly on US visitors as well. They won’t be party to any EU system, so why should the UK be treated any different. Ryan needs to get the finger out and align us to EU system ASAP.
@Hugh Corcoran: The UK left the EU in January.
@Hugh Corcoran: our open border with the UK could force countries to treat us as one block so we would be on the red list everywhere!
@Isabel Oliveira: could it be that if the UK remain outside the system yet we still want to facilitate travel there, the Irish rating would not be allowable under EU system as UK travel should affect our rating due to UK potential rating?
It changes so often I wouldn’t be booking anything
Get it done NOW – time is not on our side – ACTION
They can still implement the first half (i.e. using the criteria for red and amber countries) from next week onwards while waiting to get testing in place.
@Dr Pablo Rojas Coppari: they won’t do that for one simple reason. The UK would be admitted. Other politics in place that are bordering on xenophobic
The bicycle man won’t accept it, he just doesn’t want people flying or traveling by car.
You know what would rid us of this virus? If every single one of us took some personal responsibility and just limited their contacts to 3 or 4 people outside of their own household for 4 weeks. It would be almost gone or at least down to extremely low levels of infection. Business and livelihoods would be saved, but oh no, people are far to fhckin selfish for that to happen.
I like the idea of rapid testing but of course what false positives would come through…which could block business or personal travel plans and no refunds would be available. I am glad I am not the one having to make these decisions!
@Seeking Truth: fast testing means a lot fewer cycles, so false positives are less likely. It’s irrelevant for us anyway as this government seems determined to keep us locked up and locked in
Airlines need to put in place a refund package for those who might test positive a few hours before their flights. If the don’t government must force them to by law.
@M Bowe: isn’t that what travel insurance is for?
@Kieran Frost: not covered under current policies
What’s the point in having orange?
@Bramer: it gives you an indication that countries may turn red. Which has implications for medium-term travel planning.
My job still wants me to take two weeks off to isolate if I go abroad. So none of these means anything.
If we are going to have another lockdown it should be done across europe at the same time. Then travel within Europe should be allowed. It could break the circuit on the continent also and maybe save the aviation industry
have your say