The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that that an occupied chairlift was blown off its cable at Thredbo Ski Resort in Australia. The chairlift plummeted to the ground after being dislodged from the cable by a strong gust of wind.
A solo skier was riding the Gunbarrel Express Quad chairlift when the chair fell at around 3pm on Monday.
A spokeswoman for the resort reported that the skier fell several metres, but only suffered minor bruising in the fall.
“There was an isolated incident affecting a single chair on Gunbarrel chairlift at approximately 3pm [on Monday] caused by a freak gust of wind,” the spokeswoman said.
On Monday, Thredbo received winds averaging around 80km/h with gusts of more than 110km/h on Monday,
SafeWork NSW confirmed the chairlift had been shut down pending an investigation by the safety watchdog.