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Woman (61) falls to her death How did the fatal gondola accident in Switzerland happen? Now the mountain railway boss speaks
The sun was shining in the Engelberg-Titlis ski area at the time of the accident, but there were wind warnings.
Urs Flueeler/KEYSTONE/dpa
“We’ve never had a case like this before!”
Norbert Patt, CEO of Titlis Bergbahnen, explains in an RTL interview that he feels “completely overwhelmed” at the moment. In the Engelberg-Titlis ski area in Switzerland, a gondola detaches from the cable car and falls into the depths. The woman sitting inside dies in the accident.
Gondola breaks away from rope and falls
“We have a care team on site,” explains the cable car boss. His employees and the helpers who were first at the gondola after the accident are now being looked after. “It's an event that shouldn't happen like that. A gondola shouldn't crash,” he explains.
But that's exactly what happened with the Titlis Xpress Engelberg-Stand gondola. The accident happened at around 2,000 meters altitude, shortly after the middle station. The cabin apparently came loose from the rope and crashed into the depths. A video of the incident shows the gondola sliding down a snow-covered slope and overturning several times.
Has the gondola clamp come loose?
The exact cause of the accident has not yet been determined. The investigation into this is still ongoing. However, the most likely hypothesis for Patt is that the clamp with which the gondola was attached to the rope could have come loose. According to the mountain railway boss, this could happen if “very large forces” act on the construction – something like strong wind.
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The cable car is designed in such a way that the clamps on the gondolas have to open and close. At the entrance and exit of the train, the cabins are released from the rope and slowed down. Then they would be accelerated again and hung on the rope to be transported up and down the mountain, according to the CEO.
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Was the wind too strong on the cable car?
To guarantee the safety of passengers, the Titlis Xpress Engelberg stand has several measuring stations along the route that measure wind strength. The railway employees would have to keep an eye on the values all day and if necessary turn off the railway if the wind becomes too strong. “Yesterday morning the decision was made to put the railway into operation,” explains Patt. In the afternoon, the gondola and several others were closed due to strong winds, according to the ski area's website. Nothing more is currently clear.
The weather service Meteoschweiz showed sunshine and temperatures of around eight degrees at midday for Engelberg on its website. There was also a wind warning, with “wind peaks in exposed locations above 1,800 meters” of up to 130 kilometers per hour. How strong the gusts on the cable car actually were still needs to be clarified.
The train is said to have been “technically flawless”.
According to Patt, the gondola lift is still “relatively new”. It was built in 2014 and 2015. “It runs very smoothly and with a high level of reliability,” says the cable car boss. The last major maintenance was in the fall. However, there are daily safety checks in individual places, according to the operator. “From this we have to assume that the railway was operated in a technically perfect condition,” explains the CEO.
After the accident, the cable car was shut down and will continue to be out of service on Thursday (March 19). We are currently still checking whether there is any technical damage to the system. The other lifts in the ski area are now operating normally again. (with dpa)
Sources used: own RTL research, dpa
