The last of 174 people stranded on a cable car high on a mountain in southern Turkey were brought to safety on Saturday, nearly 23 hours after one of the pods hit a pole and exploded. One person died and seven others were injured as they crashed to the rocks below.
On Saturday afternoon, Interior Minister Ali Yelikaya announced that the rescue operation had been successfully completed.
Officials said a total of 607 search and rescue personnel and 10 helicopters were involved, including from Turkish emergency agencies, AFAD, the coast guard, fire brigades and mountain rescue teams from across Turkey. Helicopters with night vision capabilities continued to rescue people throughout the night.
The trapped people have been trapped on the Tunektepe cable car outside the Mediterranean city of Antalya since the accident happened at 5:30 pm on Friday.
Istanbul resident Hatice Porat and her family were rescued after seven hours. There was a power outage and the pod flipped four or five times, she told Anadolu Agency.
“It was a bad night, we were very scared. There were children around us and they all passed out,” she said. “It was torture to be there for seven hours. It was shaking every second and you were in constant fear. … It was very painful and I don’t know how we could ever get over this trauma. “
The state-run Anadolu news agency identified the deceased as a 54-year-old Turkish man. The injured included two children, six Turkish citizens and one Kyrgyz citizen. They were all rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter shortly after the accident and transported for treatment. Pictures in Turkish media showed the stricken car rocked by cables that had fallen off the side of the rocky mountain as medics tended to the injured.
Yelikaya also announced that 13 people rescued from other cars were also sent to the hospital for examination.
Friday was the last day of Turkey’s three-day public holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which families flock to coastal resorts.
The cable car takes visitors from Konyaalti Beach to the restaurants and observation decks on the 618-meter (2,010-foot) Tunektepe summit. It is managed by the Antalya Municipality. The cable car line was completed in 2017 and underwent a major inspection at the beginning of the year, as well as routine inspections throughout the year.
The Antalya Chief Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation. An expert committee of mechanical and electrical engineers and health and safety experts was appointed to determine the cause of the accident.
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