Engelberg cable car slams into a pylon before falling
Keystone-SDA
The fatal fall of a cable car gondola on Wednesday in central Switzerland was due to “an unexpectedly strong gust of wind”, according to its manufacturer. The gust blew the cabin against a pylon. The impact unhooked it from the support cable.
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At the time of the accident, the wind was strong and blustery,” Arno Inauer, managing director of the Zug company Garaventa, which built the Titlis Xpress eight-seater gondolas, wrote to the media on Friday. The checks carried out since Wednesday show that the installation in question was in perfect technical condition,” he said.
The gondola fell on a snow-covered slope after the intermediate station of Trübsee (1,800m), on its way up to the upper station of Stan (2,430m). It rolled several times after the fall. Its sole occupant, a 61-year-old woman from the region, did not survive.
+ One dead after gondola cabin plunges in Swiss resort of Engelberg
The upper section of the Titlis Xpress has been closed since the accident until further notice. The parallel cable car linking Trübsee to Stand will ensure transport on this route.
On Thursday parliamentarian Hans Wicki, chairman of the board of directors of the Engelberg mountain railways, told the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper that just before the accident, employees working on the Titlis Xpress had begun to suspend operations because of the wind. They were putting the gondolas in a storage area when one of the gondolas still in service fell.
Adapted from French by AI/ts
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