A ski gondola carrying a Danish family of four fell approximately 23 feet to the ground at a ski resort in the Austrian Alps on Tuesday, leaving everyone on board with serious injuries.
The accident occurred late in the morning at the Hoghets resort in Tyrol, when a tree fell on the cable supporting the gondola, causing it to crash into the ground.
The cable car landed on rocky, inaccessible terrain, forcing rescue workers to hoist the victims to safety using ropes dangling from a hovering helicopter.
Three of the gondola passengers were hospitalized in the town of Sams with serious injuries, and one was airlifted to a hospital in Innsbruck in critical condition.
Austrian news outlets reported that the four victims were Danish nationals.
They are described as 49-year-old men. his children, a 20-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman, and their 46-year-old uncle.
Police chief Hubert Juen told the Austrian news agency that a German couple, aged 62 and 58, who were riding in an adjacent gondola, were also injured by the vibrations of the cable.
Their status was unknown.
Juen said: Austrian news site “Kurier” The German national was said to be “so shocked that he has not yet been able to give an interview.”
Experts are still trying to figure out how the crash happened, but there is “no indication of technical or human failure,” Juen said.
Krier said commanders said a tree or branch fell directly onto the part of the Danish family's gondola that was connected to the cable.
Operators of the cable car line, known as the Ackerkogelbahn, said they found nothing unusual during a trial run of the gondola early Tuesday.
The other 60 cable cars operating at the time of the accident were safely lowered before the route was temporarily closed.
with post wire
