Pakistani cable car/chairlift helicopter rescue attempt.

[OneHungLow]

A military rescue is under way for six children and two adults trapped in a cable car over a ravine in Pakistan's north-west.

The group were on their way to school when one of the cables snapped, leaving it dangling 274m (900 ft) above ground, officials said.

Pakistan's acting PM has ordered rescuers to attend to the "alarming" incident in Battagram.

Helicopters have reached the car but the rescue's status is unclear.

The eight passengers were trapped for at least four hours before the first helicopter arrived, local media outlet Dawn reported.

The incident happened at about 07:00 local time (02:00 GMT) on Tuesday across the Allai valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Residents spotting the car stranded mid-air used loudspeakers to alert local officials to the crisis.

The open chair-lift is now being "suspended by a single rope", local rescue official Abdul Basit Khan told AFP news agency.

"For God's sake help us," Gulfaraz, a man stuck in the cable car, told Pakistan television channel Geo News by phone. He confirmed eight people were on board.

One of the students had fallen unconscious in the past three hours, he said, adding that students on board were aged between 10 and 15 years old.

He noted that anxious crowds had gathered on either side of the valley to watch the mission. Authorities are trying to spread nets underneath the car.

"People in our area are standing here and crying," Gulfaraz said, urging authorities to send immediate help.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-66578894

[OneHungLow]

Pakistan has seen disasters relating to these cable cars/chairlifts before.

10 people died in 2017 after cable car plunged into a ravine in Pakistan

This is not the first time Pakistan is witnessing an incident on a high-altitude ropeway. In 2017, at least 10 people died after a cable car fell into a ravine at a mountain resort in the Murree district of Punjab.

That cable car fell 400ft into the gorge as it was transporting people between two hilly areas. Cable cars are the only mode of transportation in some parts of Pakistan, forcing people to take risky commutes on a daily basis.

Villagers frequently use cable cars to get to school, government offices or businesses in mountainous regions, but they are often poorly maintained and every year people die or are injured while traveling in them.

A country that can afford to develop nuclear bombs and missiles and yet not provide safe transportation etc. for its citizens!

[OneHungLow]

Army commandos in Pakistan have rescued two children from a stranded chairlift where seven children and one teacher had been left hanging 274 metres (900ft) above a ravine in after a cable snapped.

The children, who have been stranded since 7am local time (0200 BST), were using the chairlift to get to school in a mountainous area in Battagram, about 125 miles north of Islamabad.

A rescue agency spokesperson and a district official confirmed the rescue of the first two children, which had taken place in difficult conditions in high winds.

https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-chi ... 9f4a971286

[OneHungLow]

Apparently the helicopters have been stood down overnight while one adult and an unconfirmed number of children still hang, one hung low, on high! What an awful predicament.

[PHXPhlyer]

All 8 people rescued from stranded cable car in Pakistan

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/22/asia/pak ... index.html

All eight people, including six children and two adults, who were stranded on a cable car dangling hundreds of feet over a valley in northwest Pakistan have been rescued, the country’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwar Kakar said in a statement.

“Relieved to know that Alhamdolillah all the kids have been successfully and safely rescued. Great team work by the military, rescue departments, district administration as well as the local people,” he said in the statement posted on X, formerly called Twitter.

The rescue began on Tuesday after six children and two teachers were traveling to school in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when one of the gondola’s cables snapped on Tuesday morning, leaving them stuck some 900 feet above a valley, officials said.

Footage released by the rescue services captured the dramatic moment when one child appeared to jump from the cable car while holding onto the end of a rope dangling from a helicopter before being flown to safety.

Another video provided by the rescue services showed locals and emergency workers using ropes to reel in another person attached to a platform by a harness.

As night fell, Pakistani authorities were forced to pause helicopter rescues of the remaining children and adults, but officials said attempts to get them safely out of the cable car by other means would continue into the night.

The cable car was traveling between the villages of Btangi and Jhengarie and had made multiple trips on Tuesday before the cable snapped, said Tanveer Ur Rehman, deputy commissioner of Battagram district, who added that strong winds had thwarted earlier attempts to reach those trapped.

Many children who live in remote and mountainous parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province rely on cable cars to ferry them to school and back. Some of these lack regular maintenance and can be a risky form of travel.

Amid the rescue attempt on Tuesday, two of the students in the cable car were reportedly slipping in and out of consciousness, one of the passengers told Pakistani media outlet Geo News earlier. The passenger, named only as Gulfaraz, had urged state authorities to take action. He said that the students, aged between 10 and 15 years old, didn’t even have drinking water.

Rescue personnel gave the passengers nausea medication following reports of children vomiting, Ur Rehman said, adding that those trapped were also given heart related medication.

Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar ordered all “dilapidated and non-compliant chairlifts” to close immediately, according to a statement from his office.

PP

[Karearea]

What an appalling situation to have been in.
Well done the rescuers.

[OneHungLow]

What an appalling situation to have been in.
Well done the rescuers.

+1

Kudos to both the air and ground based rescuers.