As of: April 3, 2024, 6:52 a.m
By: Franziska Schwarz
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Chairlifts in the Breuil-Cervinia ski area are swaying dangerously. A victim talks about the shock.
Breuil-Cervinia - "Our butts were ripped off our seats": A person affected by the frightening ski lift incident in Italy spoke to a newspaper about the anxious moments - her statements are causing a stir. “We held on and were thrown through the air,” Stephanie Burt told the
Daily Mail
.
“We clung to our lives for 40 minutes. We were in shock,” she continued. The 48-year-old was on her way to the Matterhorn with her partner last week. Their ski lift was caught in storms with wind speeds of more than 100 km/h.
Videos of the scenes circulated on social media. The weather website
Meteo Valle d'Aosta
also published footage of the incident. They show how violently the seats were shaken. Due to poor weather conditions in the morning, the lift had already closed, leaving passengers the unfortunate last of the day on the way to the mountain station, the
BBC
reported .
Scenes of the lift incident in Breuil-Cervinia (private shots) © Screenshot: Twitter/Mr C Geo and PE // Instagram/meteovaledaosta
Lift incident in a ski resort in Italy: “That’s crazy!”
Still, the horror for Burt and her partner lasted more than half an hour. According to the
Daily Mail
report, ski resort workers arrived after about 20 minutes to repair a sensor on the lift. The occupants were then able to arrive at their destination. Beforehand, a man is said to have jumped out of the elevator to get to safety - apparently without suffering any physical harm. According to the lift operators, there were no injuries.
Burt is now accusing the lift operators of downplaying the March 28 incident. A day later she met the operators Federico Maquignaz and Mauro Joyeusaz for a conversation. But afterwards she became even more upset: “They probably believe that our lives were not in danger at all. This is crazy!” she complained to the
Daily Mail
. She won't ski again until the resort tightens its safety protocols.
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Foehn storm with hurricane gusts in Switzerland
The location of the incident was the popular holiday resort of Cervinia in Italy's Aosta Valley, which recently changed its name twice. The very next day, lifts in some Swiss ski areas had to be temporarily switched off - and winter sports enthusiasts had to queue up because of the “Föhn of the decade”. Storm gusts with top speeds of 190 kilometers per hour were measured above Andermatt late on Friday evening.
This season, storms in the Alps are putting a damper on snow fun. For example, an avalanche accident in Zermatt on April 1st claimed three lives.
(frs)