21 people are stuck in gondolas overnight

A passenger is roped off a gondola that got stuck because of an iced cable.

Roberto E. Rosales /The Albuquerque Journal/AP

In the US state of New Mexico, 21 people were stuck in cable car cabins overnight. An icy cable had caused the gondolas to get stuck high in the Sandia Mountains. The rescuers used helicopters and ropes to free the people.

In the US state of New Mexico, 21 people were stuck in cable car cabins overnight. An icy cable had caused the gondolas to get stuck high in the Sandia Mountains above Albuquerque, the authorities announced on Saturday. The rescuers used helicopters and ropes to free the people.

All people in the two gondolas were employees of the cable car, the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway, or a mountain restaurant. 20 people in a gondola wanted to go down to the valley on Friday evening following the end of their working day. The other employee, who was sitting alone in a second gondola, was on his way upstairs to do the night shift of the security service.

The spokesman for the fire department in the Bernalillo district, Robert Arguellas, said that the emergency services first freed the 20 occupants of the first gondola and hours later the security service employees who were stuck further up the mountain. Nobody was injured, only the mood among those trapped was bad. Rescue workers previously managed to bring blankets and food to the heated gondolas. The trapped were then lowered to the ground with ropes and flown into the valley by helicopter.

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