Dozens of people were left hanging and around 15 were hurt when the chairlift collapsed. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
A chairlift accident at Spain’s Astún Ski Resort in the Spanish Pyrenees has left over 12 people injured, three of them seriously. Two of them are still recovering in the hospital.
According to reports, the accident occurred when the lift cables lost tension. As of this writing, the reason it happened is a mystery, although it appears to have been a pulley failure that caused the cable to fall slack.
“The causes of the accident are unknown which are currently being investigated,” the resort said in a statement. “The facility comes with all permits and inspections. The protocols for rescue and transfer of wounded have worked properly, evacuating all the uphill users within two and a half hours.”
Jaime Pelegri, who was on the lift when it fell, explained what happened to Sky News. “We were still going up, it looked like the cable lost tensity,” he said. “So at the same time, all of the chairs in the lift started to fall, and we actually were a part of that.”
Luckily, Pelegri and his wife had only just gotten on the chairlift, but those ahead of them weren’t so fortunate. “The chairs surrounding us were falling back,” he remembered. “[Higher up on the lift is] where more dangerous things happened, and there were injured people”.
Pelegri estimated some of the accident victims fell 30 to 50 feet before landing in the snow beneath. Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s Prime Minister, was shocked when he heard the news. “All our affection to the injured and their families,” he said.
The resort was closed for a few hours as the rescue and repairs were attended to, but Astún was back up and running by the next morning.
