In Val Thorens, a cable car accident took place this Tuesday, November 19, eight people were injured, two of them seriously. In the Alps, several other notable cable car accidents have occurred over the past sixty years.
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A gondola accident in the Val Thorens ski area, in Savoie, occurred this Tuesday, November 19. The ski lift got stuck on arrival at the station. Eight people were injured, two of them seriously. An investigation has been opened, the causes and circumstances of the accident must be determined. The events occurred just a few days before the opening of the station, scheduled for November 23.
In France, the more than 3,000 ski lifts recorded account for the passage of 611 million users for the 2018-2019 season. Fatal cable car accidents are very rare, but they remain marked in the collective mind. A look back at several significant accidents in the Alps over the last sixty years.
- 1961: the Vallée Blanche accident
It was August 1961. That day, the weather was magnificent and 87 people boarded the cabins of the Vallée Blanche cable car, in Chamonix, in Haute-Savoie, for a 5-kilometer journey. The installation was considered at the time to be the highest in Europe, and for good reason, it reached an altitude of 3,800 meters at the Aiguille du Midi.
While travelers admire the view, a French army fighter plane, in mid-flight, cuts the cable of this cable car with its wing. Several cabins crashed 150 meters below: six occupants were found dead by emergency services. The other cabins remain suspended in the void for what will seem to travelers like an eternity: 20 hours. They spend the night in the cold, but are rescued the next day.
- 1972: Cabins colliding
On October 26, 1972 around 4:30 p.m., two cabins at the Deux Alpes station, in Isère, collide during tests on the Jandri II cable car. This accident caused the death of nine technicians who were supposed to carry out the fine-tuning of the installation.
The cabins rolled down the slopes of Jandri and broke apart before ending up at the foot of the black lake. They collided at full speed. According to information from the investigation at the time, it was the poor braking system that caused the accident.
- 1989: the Vaujany disaster
The date is anchored in the history of Vaujany, in Isère. On January 13, 1989, a cabin broke loose during a test and caused the death of eight people. These are technicians who were carrying out the last checks of the cable car before its inauguration, which was to take place a week later… At the time, this installation was to be the longest in the world with its 4.3 kilometers connecting Vaujany at Alpes d'Huez, which can hold up to 160 people.
That day, the cabin crashed 200 meters below. It was the fixing system between the trolley and the axis holding the arm which broke and caused the dumpster to fall.
- 1999: The Pic de Bure accident
Ten years later, it was Dévoluy which was hit with the accident which caused the most victims in the Alps. On July 1, 1999, in the Hautes-Alpes, the cabin of the observatory cable car came loose at 7:10 a.m. between the second and third pylon and caused the death of twenty people.
The cabin crashed at the foot of the Pic de Bure, 100 meters below. On board, workers and scientists were joining a construction site on the plateau, near the observatory. The investigation carried out concluded that the attachment supporting the cabin and the tractor cable had failed.
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