New Mexico search and rescue teams used ropes and helicopters Saturday to rescue 21 people stranded overnight in two trams after an icy cable caused the cars high up in the Sandia Mountains overlooking Albuquerque got stuck
Lt. Robert Arguellas, a spokesman for the Bernalillo County Fire Department, said early Saturday afternoon that the crews rescued 20 people stranded in one car and several hours later rescued a 21st person stranded alone in a second car.
All of the people in the two cars were employees of the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway or a mountain restaurant, and the 20 in one car were taken to the base of the mountains at the end of their working days, Arguellas said.
The other worker had been driving up the mountain to keep things safe overnight when the tram system closed due to icing on Friday night, Arguellas said.
There were no reported injuries among those stranded, Arguellas said. “More like, just pretty frustrated.”
To save the 20 people in the one car, operators were able to take it to a nearby support tower at more than half the mountain, and search and rescue workers hiked into the area early Saturday morning and climbed the tower to get blankets and others Supplies to be delivered to those in the heated car, Arguellas said.
Search and rescue workers used ropes and other equipment for several hours to lower the stranded workers about 26 meters to the ground before escorting them to a nearby landing zone in the steep and rocky terrain where the tower was, said Arguellas.
The 20 people were then brought to the foot of the mountains several at a time by helicopter, he said.
Arguellas said the second car with the one employee on board was higher up the mountain and in a place where the car was too high off the ground for people to be lowered with ropes.
But the tram system was able to push the second car over the cable to the rescue center at the shoring tower, and rescuers then used ropes to lower the 21st person like the others, Arguellas said.
Brian Coon, a tram system manager, said ice was building up unusually quickly on one of the cables that left it hanging under the tram, making it dangerous to continue, KOB-TV reported.