In March 2018, a dramatic scene unfolded at Georgia’s Gudauri ski resort, leaving at least 10 people injured and crowds of onlookers traumatized. The mountain’s Sadzele four-person chairlifts began running at a high speed in reverse, hurling skiers and snowboarders off the chairs.
Chairs smashed into each other and fell to the ground while riders struggled to get out of the way. Fortunately, while many people were left with injuries and sent to the hospital, nobody died in the accident.
The French firm Bureau Veritas investigated the incident and confirmed that the combination of electrical failure and human error led to the catastrophic incident. When the chairlift stopped the operator failed to comply with relevant protocol and the chairlift was not switched to diesel generator power as it should have been.
“However, after the chairlift was stopped, the operator had to introduce specific sequence of procedures and after implementation of the certain actions, the operator had to switch the chairlift on to the diesel generator power and bring the tourist to the safe site where they would have left the chairlift.
Unfortunately, according to the current conclusion, the operator made a mistake. The combination of the actions that he should have had carried out were not implemented in compliance with the relevant instructions – it was a human error.”
The incident received widespread coverage around the world, sparking newfound anxiety around chairlift accidents and rollbacks.