Tourists traumatized in Table Mountain rescue drama

Cape Town – Around 900 tourists were stranded for three hours on the top of South Africa’s famous Table Mountain Monday night after a blackout ground the cable cars that ferry people up and down the 1,085-metre-mountain to a halt in mid-air. When the lights went out in central Cape Town shortly before 8:00 pm, 40 people were nearing the top of the mountain in a cable car preparing to spend the evening atop the flat-topped mountain with its panoramic views of the city and Cape peninsula. At the bottom 50 people in the descending cable car were drawing close to the end of their 10-minute journey down the mountain face, according to Collette van Aswegen of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableways.

Both cars were about two metres from arrival when the power went out. But a technical fault arising from the blackout prevented the cars from docking, triggering an hour-long rescue operation, which saw passengers at the top clamber to safety via “something similar to a ladder.”

At the other end tourists were being lowered to the ground in what the company described as a rescue bag.
Meanwhile around 900 tourists were waiting on top of the mountain to descend after watching the sun set over the city on an clear night. Many tourists dine at the top in a restaurant looking out over the Atlantic Ocean.

“Once the people were out technical people sorted the problem out in about 20 minutes,” van Aswegen said, admitting “there were a number of visitors that were obviously upset.”

But the cable cars only started running again after 11:00 pm, with the last group of around 65 passengers emerging at around 1:30 am Tuesday.

Get entire story on – Earth Times

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