WPBN: As a result of a malfunction, more than 170 individuals were rescued from gondolas that were hanging from the ceiling at a ski resort in Colorado. They had been imprisoned for several hours.
According to accounts in the media, a crack that was discovered in a metal support structure caused one of the lifts at Winter Park Resort, which is located south of Denver, to automatically shut down on Saturday afternoon for the purpose of taking safety precautions.
It took rescue workers five hours to bring 174 people down to the ground, according to a spokeswoman for the resort who talked with KDVR.
“We were going up to do our first run, my wife and I, and we stopped. Stopped for about 15 minutes and we started kind of thinking, maybe it’s unusual,” skier Aleksey Dmitriyev stated. “I called the line, and the line saying if it’s less than 20 minutes don’t worry, call us back… Then we waited a bit longer and we started seeing ski patrol coming down and talking to people from the ground to the cabin, like saying how many of you in the cabin, all that.”
“Everybody was pretty calm, ski patrol was calm and professional and assured us,” he continued. “It was kind of interesting because he kind of knew what he was doing, but we were a little bit concerned.”
“We skied a few runs after that, we used a different lift, of course, and it was still an OK day but once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Dmitriyev further disclosed.
A video was obtained by Dmitriyev that showed a rescuer lowering himself into the cabin of his gondola that was stuck in the water.
“We are going to send a seat up, we are each going to get in a seat individually and slowly lower everyone down,” according to the individual.
After that, the video shows a number of individuals, including a toddler, being carried down to a safe location during the incident.
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According to Winter Park Resort, the lift remained closed on Sunday for the purpose of repairs and inspections, and the maker of the gondola was present at the location.
The station also notes that as of late Sunday night, a new component had been fitted, and testing is currently taking place in preparation for the lift to be reopened.
Following the completion of a comprehensive inspection by the safety board, the resort will be able to resume operations once again, as stated by the corporation. When it came to the gondola’s projected return to service, the resort did not have a specific timeline in mind.
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