Around 200 persons participated in the rescue of the 32 persons that were stranded in the Puerto Plata north and south-bound cable cars. By Sunday evening, the first 16 persons were rescued using an emergency car, but the second car had to wait for early morning to be safely rescued. No one was physically injured.
The cable car pulley system went awry when operating at full capacity on Sunday at around 2pm. Thirty vacationers and two cable car operators were stuck on board.
The first rescued were sixteen of one car that arriving to the base station. The special emergency car brought these down six by six in the evening. But the second car was too high up, at approximately 350 meters, and too slanted for the rescue.
As reported in N Digital, two rescue specialists from the Santo Domingo Metro (Cesmet) were the heroes of the second car. The rescuers fitted hiking harnesses on the vacationers and lowered these to land one by one in an operation that began at 3am and extended into the sunrise shortly after 6:30am. Several young children were on board. The vacationers had already received water, snacks and blankets to pass the chilly night.
Civil Defense, firemen, Armed Forces, National Police officials, Committee for Emergency Operations (COE) officials together with the Santo Domingo Metro Specialized Security Corps (Cesmet) worked intensely in the rescue.
As reported, when the cable car stalled, persons on board called 911 to alert of the situation.
This is the most serious failure the cable cars have experienced since they began operation in Puerto Plata in 1975.
At the time, President Luis Abinader was in Ecuador, but followed the incidents through his tweets, encouraging those caught in the cars to have patience that they would be rescued as soon as possible. Administrative Minister of the Presidency Jose Ignacio Paliza, a former Puerto Plata senator, traveled to his home town to oversee the rescue operation.
Alex Merete, interim director of the skylift, said the cable car could be back in operation in a week’s time. The cable car transports on average 1,000 vacationers to the top of the Isabel de Torres Mountain and its lush botanical garden.
Diario Libre reports that on board the stranded cars were six Puerto Rican tourists and the rest were Dominican vacationers. There was a cable car operator in each of the cars.
The Puerto Plata skylift mechanical failure coincided with the crash of a cable car in Italy, where 14 died.
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N Digital
El Dia
El Caribe
El Caribe
24 May 2021