Three-hour ordeal in crippled gondola

By JO-MARIE BROWN

About 90 badly shaken people had to scramble down ladders or be winched to the ground yesterday as Rotorua's gondola was evacuated for the first time in its 19-year history.

Hundreds of Easter holidaymakers were at Skyline Skyrides on Mt Ngongotaha, enjoying the view and riding the popular luge when a loud bang brought 30 gondola cabins to a violent halt.

Skyrides general manager Neville Nicholson said last night that the cause of the breakdown was not yet known, although the Herald understands those stranded were told a tension cable had snapped.

"We'll have a much clearer picture once we strip some of this equipment down, and I've got teams of maintenance people working on that at the moment," Mr Nicholson said.

Crowds of people gathered in Skyrides' carpark just after midday to watch as those trapped either climbed out of the gondola cabins by ladder or were winched to safety one by one.

Tauranga man Warren Curtis-Smith, his brother-in-law and 15-year-old niece were the first to be rescued by firefighters and Skyrides staff, but some gondola riders - hanging precariously above the steep slopes - had to wait nearly three hours to be freed.

"All of a sudden it stopped and we were rocking around," Mr Curtis-Smith said.

"It was a frightening feeling. You naturally think you're crashing to the ground ... It was like being in a clothes dryer."

Whangarei couple Phillip Armstrong and Lara Caldwell said neither of them was keen to get on a gondola again after yesterday's experience.

"I thought that we were going to go down. Lara just grabbed on to me and she just started crying hard-out," Mr Armstrong said.

Auckland's Mark and Liz Williams said they were near the front of the queue to get on the gondolas with their two sons, Nicholas, 6, and Hunter, 4, when the accident occurred.

"I was actually just watching the mechanism of it when all of a sudden I saw it speed up and then a big chunk of steel ripped off and flew forwards," Mr Williams said.

The family ran from the building and saw that the cable holding the gondola cabins had slumped.

Another Auckland family, who were halfway up the gondola when it began to swing wildly, noticed the cable had come off its runners near their cabin.

"It was a bit terrifying for the first 10 seconds until you realise that you're still up in the air," said Craig Lockwood, of Papakura.

"It felt like it dropped about a metre."

No one was injured during the breakdown but many people were left stranded at the top of Mt Ngongotaha.

Four-wheel-drive vehicles were called in to help ferry people down Skyrides' private access road, while others opted to ride the luge halfway down the mountain and walk to the bottom from there.

Mr Nicholson said staff had never had to evacuate the gondola in such fashion before.

The gondola rises 178.5m from the bottom station, but the company was pleased at how smoothly the rescue had gone.

"We train for an emergency such as this on a regular basis. You hope that it's never going to happen but these things do," he said.

Equipment was checked regularly and the company was comfortable with its maintenance procedures.

Occupational Safety and Health is investigating the incident and Mr Nicholson did not know when the gondola would reopen.

"We're just taking it a step at a time. We're reassessing the whole thing, so we'll see where we go from here."

Skyline Gondola

900m long.

Reaches a height of 487m above sea level.

Has a vertical rise of 178.5m from start point to top station.

Capacity to carry 500 people an hour in up to 46 four-seater cabins.

A 120hp engine drives 31mm cable.

Trip time 4m 48sec.

Line speed 2-3m per seconds.