A cable car carrying passengers in a mountainous area of southern Turkey broke apart after colliding with part of the metal structure supporting it on Friday, sending the eight terrified passengers plummeting to the rocky slope below.
One passenger was killed, seven were injured and nearly 200 more were trapped in other cabins in the air, some for up to 19 hours, as rescuers worked to extricate them from the crippled line.
Helicopters, cranes and hundreds of rescuers were deployed to the area to evacuate a total of 184 people, including children, local residents and foreign tourists who were trapped in cabins, some of them dozens of meters above the ground in the Sarisu district of Antalya province. , officials said.
Cable cars usually take passengers to a point high on the steep, tree-lined mountain that offers panoramic views of the hills, the city of Antalya, and the Mediterranean Sea. Friday may have been a particularly busy night for tourism there. the weekend began as Muslims celebrated Eid, the multi-day holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.
Around 6 p.m. local time on Friday, a pole that was part of the system snapped off and hit one of the cabins, breaking the cabin and throwing its eight passengers to the rocky ground when the floor they were standing on suddenly fell, the Demiroren news agency reported.
One passenger, a 54-year-old man, died at the scene and the other seven were injured, Demiroren said. Three more people were injured during the rescue operation, Antalya Mayor Muhittin Bocek told reporters at the scene.
Images from the scene showed the mangled car, with its floor off and windows smashed, hanging yards above the ground in the evening twilight. Other cabins—many with shaken passengers still inside—stretched before and behind her in a long line, dangling like tiny orange fruit from a vine above the rocks and trees below.
Tall cranes were erected near some of the cars. In others, emergency personnel wearing climbing helmets strewn ropes to reach trapped passengers and used metal baskets to carry the injured.
In one case, a female passenger wearing high-heeled sandals and holding a small child on her chest was ejected by safety harnesses and lowered slowly to the ground. A rescuer waited in the cabin as it was evacuated while the other passengers waited inside for their turn.
The rescuers succeeded evacuation of 137 people overnight and into Saturday morning, and officials said they expected to complete the rescue operation before dark. By noon, passengers in five cabins were still waiting to be evacuated in what had become a methodical and dangerous task.
“There is an unstable airflow and there is wind,” Okey Memis, head of Turkey’s emergency service, said in televised comments, adding that it made it difficult for helicopters to fly near the site. “Rescue operations are underway in a very steep area.”
Mr Memes said officials on the ground were in constant contact with the stranded riders.
Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the accident, Turkey’s justice minister said, and experts have been assigned to determine the underlying cause and any liability.
All 24 cabins of the cable car line were in the air when the accident happened. Many of the small cars, each with a capacity of eight, carried adults and children. The line opened in 2017, starting near a picnic area and offering direct access to the viewing platform, shops and a cafe at the top.
Mayor Bocek, whose municipality manages the cable line, said in televised comments that weekly and monthly maintenance of the cable line had been completed.
The last annual maintenance took place between February 19 and March 4 this year, said Deniz Yavuzyilmaz, an official of Mr. Bocek’s political party.
