Out-of-control ski lift speeds downhill and flings skiers off their seats
A ski lift in Georgia (the country, not US state) went haywire went it lost its brakes and sent passengers downhill, picking up speed and flinging skiers off the lift. The stuff of nightmares.
Snowboarder Alena Pakhomova posted this footage on her Instagram page:
A post shared by DDDDD DDN...D3/4D1/4D3/4D^2D (@pahomova_enduro22) on Mar 16, 2018 at 3:33am PDT
According to The Telegraph:
Georgia's Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed emergency ski patrols were quickly dispatched to the scene and a helicopter helped transport injured parties to hospital.
"Among the injured are Swedish and Ukrainian citizens," said Mr Sergeenko [translated].
"Only two cases need to be monitored," he added. "One of the injured, a Ukrainian citizen, broke his hand during the incident, and has a small head injury, while a Swedish citizen is pregnant and feels pain in her waist."
A spokesperson for Austrian-based ski-lift producer, the Doppelmayr Garaventa group, confirmed to The Telegraph it does not yet know what caused the incident.
Image: Alena Pakhomova/Instagram