Tourists evacuated by helicopter after Swiss cable car breakdown

Keystone / Bastien Gallay

Technical problems involving the second cable car at the Swiss ski resort of Glacier 3000 had left 270 visitors stuck at the top. 

The electric fault in the cable car occurred around 11:00 am bringing the tourist traffic to a halt. The people trapped in the cable cars were pulled into the end stations with the aid of backup emergency systems. Then, as the fault could not be rectified quickly, it was decided at around 13:00 to evacuate the tourists by helicopter.

Around 270 tourists, stranded at the summit, were flown out  in two Air Glacier helicopters that made 54 trips in total. The whole operation lasted a good hour and a half. 

Repairs are underway and the service was still not operating on Saturday.

+ Reaching new heights with Swiss cable cars

Last September, a fire broke out at the high-altitude restaurant above the resort at Les Diablerets in French-speaking canton Vaud, southwestern Switzerland. No one was injured as the building was empty at the time of the blaze. The cable cars were also left intact. 

Reconstruction work only began last month after plans for the new building were presented by Swiss architect Mario Botta.