Number 12 Gudauri Resort Incident
In 2018, an incident described by the media as the “ski lift from hell” occurred at a Guadauri
resort, in Georgia. The mechanism suddenly started going in reverse at more than twice its normal
speed. Upon realizing that the ski lift was out of control, some tourists chose to jump out of
their chairs, from various altitudes. Others were flung several feet into the air as they were taken
back down and spun around by the machine. At the bottom of the lift, empty chairs started piling up
as they crashed into each other. One tourist managed to crawl to safety after narrowly avoiding
being struck in the head by an empty chair. 11 people were hurt, including a pregnant woman
from Sweden, but none sustained life-threatening injuries. The exact cause of the malfunction
hasn’t been determined but a voltage fluctuation or a brake failure is among the main theories.
Number 11 Ski Lift Plane Crash In October of 2019, a small plane
crashed into a ski lift in Prato Valentino, in the Italian Alps. The aircraft was suspended upside
down after it became entangled in the overhead cables that powered the mechanism. Amazingly,
both of the plane’s occupants survived the crash. The pilot, an unnamed 62-year-old man, was thrown
to the wing and sustained minor injuries. The single passenger, a 55-year-old tourist,
remained inside the aircraft and was unharmed. The complex rescue operation involved 2 helicopters
as well as numerous firefighters, army personnel and mountain climbers. They carefully made their
away along the cables, so as not to accidentally untangle the aircraft, and attached harnesses to
the stranded men. They’d been extremely fortunate that the plane had gotten stuck in the cables
instead of impacting the ground. Number 10 1998 Cavalese Disaster
On February the 3rd of 1998, one of the deadliest ski lift disasters in history took place near the
resort town of Cavalese, Italy. An EA-6B Prowler aircraft, belonging to the US Marine Corps,
struck a cable from the town’s aerial lift. In a narrow valley between the mountains,
the aircraft was travelling at a speed of roughly 540 mph and at an altitude of 260 to 330 feet.
It was reportedly flying too low and against regulations. The Prowler severed the cable
with its right wing, causing a cabin, which was carrying 20 people, to plummet 260 feet to the
ground. The catastrophic drop had no survivors. The pilot and his navigator were put on trial
in the US, as NATO treaties give jurisdiction to the country’s military courts. They were found not
guilty of negligent homicide and manslaughter. The verdict outraged the Italian people and
put a stress on relationships between the two nations. The airmen would later be dismissed
from the Marine Corps when it emerged that they’d destroyed a videotape recording from the plane.
Number 9 Maine Ski Lift Derailment
In December of 2010, a malfunction at the Sugarloaf resort, at one of Maine’s tallest
skiing mountains, left at least half a dozen people injured. The lift suddenly
stopped then started again with a strong jolt that sent skiers flying out of their chairs.
Six of them plummeted 25 to 30 feet and impacted the frozen ground below. Two of them were rushed
to the hospital. It was later revealed that the cable had come off the track wheels, a
derailment that was attributed to unusually strong winds. Before the rescue operation was finished,
more than 160 skiers had been trapped on the lift, in frigid temperatures, for over 90 minutes.
Number 8 Luz Ardiden Incident Following the collapse of a ski lift anchor pylon,
at the Luz Ardiden resort, in France, 50 chairs plummeted to the ground. In the accident, which
took place on March the 1st of 1987, 6 people were killed and 41 others sustained severe injuries.
The high number of casualties was attributed to the fact that there hadn’t been any fresh snow for
roughly a week. That meant that many were thrown from the mechanism onto bare rock. According to
an eyewitness, they “bounced once like puppets then fell heavily”. A number of people were also
left stranded in their seats, helplessly dangling for hours. The emergency operation involved five
helicopters and 35 ambulances, which transported the injured to hospitals in Lourdes and Tarbes.
Number 7 Accident in Switzerland In February of 2020, a four-seat chairlift
fell more than 30 feet while descending from the upper section of the Stoos-Fronalpstock, in
central Switzerland. The cable from the lift had come into contact with the tensioned winch rope
of a snow groomer. The people on the chairlift at the time were all employees of the Lindt Chocolate
Company who were returning from a company event. Out of the 4 from the fallen chairlift,
2 sustained critical injuries. They were airlifted to a hospital and one of them, a 40-year-old man,
passed away almost a week later. Number 6 Adam Lee
On December the 29th of 2017, Adam Lee was performing maintenance work on a magic carpet
ski lift at the Loveland Ski Area, in Colorado. The mechanism essentially operates like a flat
escalator, carrying skiers and snowboarders up the slopes. Lee was described as a dedicated
employee who would sometimes even work on his days off. The 40-year-old mechanic was working
under the ski lift’s conveyor belt. The system was supposed to have a lock-out mechanism but,
according to other employees, it was accidentally turned on. Lee got caught in the equipment and
sustained crushing injuries to his chest. The man, who’d recently celebrated Christmas with his wife
and three children, was later pronounced dead. Number 5 Sölden Disaster
One of the deadliest ski lift accidents in recent years took place in 2005,
at Sölden, an Alpine resort in Austria. A helicopter was carrying building materials
to a mountaintop construction site, when a giant concrete block tumbled free. The
1,650-pound block fell roughly 1,000 feet and crashed onto a cable car line below. The impact
knocked one car off the cable and caused the others to violently swing around.
9 people were killed and at least 6 were severely injured. Moreover, roughly 100 people were left
stranded in their cars and had to be rescued. Number 4 Jason Varnish
In February of 2020, 46-year-old Jason Varnish suffered a horrific accident while he was on a
ski lift in Vail, Colorado. The New Jersey man slipped through an opening in his chair
but his coat got caught. In doing so it became wrapped around his head and neck,
acting like a noose. Varnish couldn’t breathe and ultimately succumbed to positional asphyxia.
An investigation followed which found that the lift’s folding chair was upright instead of in a
down position, which is how the gap had occurred. Varnish’s death was ultimately deemed accidental
and not a failure of the lift’s operators. Number 3 Saint-Étienne-en-Dévoluy Disaster
In July 1999, a cable car accident claimed the lives of 20 people at Saint-Étienne-en-Dévoluy,
France. The victims all worked at an astronomical observatory in the area. The company operated its
own aerial tramway which the workers had boarded. The gondola had travelled about 1,600 feet from
its starting point when it suddenly became detached from its supporting cable. It would
later be revealed that a maintenance engineer had removed a safety brake from the cable car,
which allowed it to accelerate uncontrollably and slip off the cable.
This resulted in a 260-foot drop onto to rocky slopes beneath. The devastating impact destroyed
the gondola, killing all its occupants. The lift had recently passed an inspection which
concluded it was in perfect working order. The inspector, the maintenance engineer and the
observatory’s director were given suspensions as well as fines in the disaster’s aftermath.
Number 2 Yan Lift Accidents Yan Lift was a major ski lift
manufacturer in North America, which had started operating in the mid-1960s. The
company began to dominate the market of high-speed detachable chairlifts, at the start of the 1980s.
It would eventually be associated with several accidents, which had resulted from corner-cutting
during production, unaddressed design issues and poor maintenance. The first occurred in 1985,
at the Keystone Ski Resort, in Colorado. A faulty weld broke on the main pulley,
which led to 50 people being thrown from the lift. Three of them sustained fatal injuries. In 1993,
at California’s Sierra Ski Ranch, loose bolts and a derailment caused two chairs to stack up.
One person was killed and another was injured as a result. It was reported that, only a month prior,
an empty chair had fallen to the ground after its grip failed. The final deadly incident linked to
Yan lifts, which further exposed the company’s faulty equipment, occurred in British Columbia,
in 1995. At the Quicksilver lift, at Whistler Mountain, the emergency stop was used repeatedly
which caused a chair to slide downhill. Unlike the high-tension coil springs in use today,
the rubbery Yan grips exerted much less force on the cable. The sliding chair struck the one next
to it, unleashing a chain reaction. A total of four chairs fell, killing 2 people and
injuring 8 others. As a result of the infamous reputation it had gained for safety violations,
Yan Lifts filed for bankruptcy in July of 1996.
Number 1 1976 Cavalese Cable Car Disaster On March the 9th of 1976, the deadliest cable
car accident in history took place at Cavalese, Italy. High winds had caused the stationary and
the moving steel cables to cross. In doing so, one severed the other. Unfortunately, the automatic
train stop safety system had been turned off at the time. With its supporting line broken,
a cable car carrying 44 people plunged roughly 660 feet down the side of a mountain. To put
that harrowing drop into perspective, it’s nearly as tall as the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The overhead carriage assembly, weighing approximately three tons, crushed the car
as it fell on top of it. 43 lives were lost and the sole survivor was a 14-year-old girl named
Alessandra Piovesano. In the disaster’s aftermath, four of the lift’s operators were sent to prison.
Thanks for watching! Would you rather fall 50 feet into thick snow
or 100 feet onto an air pillow? Let us know in the comments section below!