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Passengers Trapped Overnight in Mont Blanc Cable Cars Are Rescued Stuck in a Cable Car High Above Mont Blanc, Waiting for Rescue
(about 4 hours later)
PARIS — All 110 passengers who were trapped in high-altitude cable cars in the French Alps have been rescued, including nearly three dozen who were forced to spend a harrowing night suspended over Mont Blanc after emergency operations were suspended, French officials said on Friday. For the nearly three dozen passengers who dangled in cable cars 12,500 feet over the glaciers of Mont Blanc, it was a long, cold and — in most cases — sleepless night.
The daring rescue unfolded at an altitude of nearly 12,500 feet in the Mont Blanc massif near Chamonix after the cars came to a halt around 2 p.m. local time Thursday between the Aiguille du Midi in France and Pointe Helbronner in Italy. Their ordeal began at around 2 p.m. local time on Thursday, in the Mont Blanc massif near Chamonix, in the French Alps, when 12 cable cars abruptly halted in midair, after their cables became tangled between the Aiguille du Midi in France and Pointe Helbronner in Italy.
All the occupants of the cable cars are “safe and sound,” the French Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding that the passengers who had been trapped overnight had French and Italian rescue workers by their side throughout the ordeal. The system of cable cars can carry up to 140 people, who can enjoy a spectacular panoramic view. Some are climbers trying to scale the area’s snow-capped mountains. The trip takes 30 minutes, and on Thursday there were passengers in nine of the cars.
The rescue effort resumed Friday morning, and the cable cars were back in service at about 8:30 a.m., officials said, after technicians untangled the supporting and towing cables that had become crossed in several places. All together 110 people were trapped, including Koreans, Britons, Americans and Italians, among them several children and an older man. After efforts to untangle the cables failed, rescuers were able to retrieve 65 people by winching them up into helicopters starting around 5:30 p.m.
One of the passengers who was rescued on Friday, who identified himself only as Clément, told the French television channel BFMTV that the passengers had spent a cold, sleepless night that had combined fear and boredom. A dozen more passengers were evacuated by an Italian rescue team, whichhelped them to descend vertically by rope to safety, which they were able to do since their cable car was close to the ground.
“In the beginning, we were very confident because we knew we had the survival blankets,” he said. “Around 2 or 3 a.m., we realized that it was quite cold, and then around 4, 5 a.m., it got quite hard because even the survival blankets were not enough.” But when night fell, making it perilous for the rescue helicopters to operate, the emergency operation was suspended. That left 33 people, including a 10-year old boy, suspended over Mont Blanc in seven cars, French officials said Friday. Thus began a seemingly interminable night that the stranded passengers described as one of fear, boredom and panic.
As the night went on, they started to play a word-guessing game. “It got boring after awhile, then we chatted with the other people,” he told BFM. “We also called a lot on the phone to get information or updates, and we were a little scared. We got bored a lot.” One of the passengers, who identified himself only as Clément and spent the night in the cable car, told the French television channel BFMTV that he and his fellow passengers had fought off the fear and the cold by playing games and chatting.
“In the beginning, we were very confident because we knew we had the survival blankets,” he said. “Around 2 or 3 a.m., we realized that it was quite cold and then around 4, 5 a.m., it got quite hard because even the survival blankets were not enough.”
As the night went on, they started to play Pyramid, a word game. “It got boring after a while, then we chatted with the other people,” he told the broadcaster. “We also called a lot on the phone to get information or updates and we were a little scared. We got bored a lot.”
He said his fear was magnified by the sight of a Korean family in the cable car ahead of his, who seemed in distress and unable to communicate. He said people in his cable car yelled to tell them where they could find survival blankets.
Rescue workers remained with passengers in five of the cars, and provided the passengers with food and blankets to fend off the chill. The rescue workers reached the area by snowmobile before flying by helicopter over the cable cars, harnessing themselves to the cables, climbing along to the cars and then dropping through the car’s hatches, French authorities said.
Mathieu Dechavanne, the chief executive of the company that manages the cable cars, said the helicopters were necessary because the glacial ground underneath was fragile. “We had to do it by helicopter and not vertically like we can do it in other places because the ground underneath is of a glacial type, so there is a risk of crevasses and it could lead to accidents,” he said.
Mr. Dechavanne said that each of the cars had a survival kit with cereal bars, water and survival blankets, and that the company had contacted the passengers by phone to keep them informed of what was happening. He said that two of the cable cars did not have rescue workers with them.
The rescue effort resumed Friday at around 6:30 a.m., when technicians untangled the supporting and towing cables that had become crossed in several places. The cable cars were back in service at about 8:30 a.m., officials said. They also said that without the added weight of those passengers rescued the day before, it was easier to untangle the cables.
All the occupants of the cable cars are “safe and sound,” the French Interior Ministry said in a statement Friday, adding that the passengers who were trapped overnight had French and Italian rescue workers by their side throughout the ordeal.
Mario Mochet, 63, an Italian mountain guide who assisted with the rescue effort, said that the passengers “were never in a huge amount of danger.”Mario Mochet, 63, an Italian mountain guide who assisted with the rescue effort, said that the passengers “were never in a huge amount of danger.”
“People panic at first, but after a few hours they’re just very happy to be rescued,” he said. “We explained that this was an exceptional situation, that everything would be fine, that we would do everything necessary to bring them down safely, without problems.” “People panic at first but after a few hours they’re just very happy to be rescued,” he said. “We explained that this was an exceptional situation, that everything would be fine, that we would do everything necessary to bring them down safely, without problems.”
Helicopters were used on Thursday to rescue 65 people. A dozen other passengers were evacuated by an Italian rescue team, but that part of the operation was not done by helicopter because the cable car was close enough to the ground, according to Mathieu Dechavanne, the chief executive of the company that manages the cable cars. Antoine Burnet, the marketing director for the Mont Blanc Company, which manages and operates ski lifts and the cable-car service for ski areas and tourist sites there, described the rescued passengers as “tired but calm” on Friday. An older man was taken to the hospital with hypothermia, he said, but was not in danger.
“We had to stop the rescuing operations when the night came because the helicopters can’t do the rescuing operation when it is dark,” Floriane Macian, a spokeswoman for the prefecture, said in a telephone interview. Mr. Burnet said that the reason the cables had crossed was unclear. “It can be caused by strong winds, which can stop the process, but there will be an investigation,” he said.
Antoine Burnet, the marketing director for the Mont Blanc Company, which runs the cable-car service, described the rescued passengers — including people from France, Italy, South Korea and the United States — as “tired but calm” on Friday. An older man was hospitalized with hypothermia, Mr. Burnet said, but he was not in danger. Mario Mochet, 63, mountain guide and member of the Aosta Valley rescue team, who has been on the job for 40 years and whose team helped rescue some of the passengers, said such incidents were rare.
Mr. Burnet added that the reason the cables had crossed was unclear. “It can be caused by strong winds, which can stop the process, but there will be an investigation,” he said. “The cable cars work pretty well,” he said. “But every now and again, this can happen.”
Mr. Dechavanne said he had called rescue services at 5 p.m. on Thursday to start evacuating the passengers.
“We had to do it by helicopter and not vertically, like we can do it in other places, because the ground underneath is of a glacial type so there is a risk of crevasses and it could lead to accidents,” he said.
The cable cars can usually carry up to 140 people, who often ride on them to enjoy the views of the mountains at this time of year. The trip takes 30 minutes.
The cable car company says its Aiguille du Midi cable car holds the world record for the highest vertical ascent: 2,807 meters, or about 9,209 feet.