Lucky escape after freak chairlift accident at Thredbo ski field
A freak chairlift accident at a popular NSW ski field caused a skier to plummet several metres from the top of the lift to the compact snow below on Monday afternoon.
The skier was nearing the top of the lift when the chair became dislodged from the cable above and plunged to the ground.
The incident occurred on the Gunbarrel Express chairlift at Thredbo, at about 3pm, Thredbo officials confirmed.
The chair failure was blamed on a “freak gust of wind.”
The accident was first reported by snowbest.com, which shared pictures of the injured skier online in the moments after the accident.
The images suggest the man fell roughly five metres to the snow below, but remarkably walked away largely unscathed.
In a statement sent to Yahoo News Australia, a Thredbo spokesperson said the dramatic incident only caused minor bruising to the man involved.
"Thredbo can confirm there was an isolated incident affecting a single chair on Gunbarrel chairlift at approximately 3pm on Monday July 22, 2019 caused by a freak gust of wind," the statement read.
"The guest involved in the incident sustained minor bruising only. No other guests or chairs were affected.”
The incident, took place nearing the end of operation on Monday and the chairlift remained on standby on Tuesday.
A Thredbo spokesperson said it would remain on standby "pending an investigation".
SafeWork NSW told the ABC that it was looking into the incident and that it would carry out an inspection of the chairlift.
A similar incident on the same chairlift happened in 2016, although in that case the chair was not carrying any passengers.
A severe weather warning was issued by the Bureau of Meteorology for the Snowy Mountains region on Monday afternoon, with winds averaging 80 to 90 kilometres an hour, and gusts over 110 km/h also expected.
Tuesday’s forecast was for more strong winds.
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