Zoo Sightseers Left Dangling 30m Above Baboon Pit in Cable Car
Jammed gondola at New York zoo causes 37 passengers to endure five-hour ordeal above butterfly and baboon exhibits
Sightseers at New York's Bronx zoo were left dangling 30 meters above a baboon enclosure for nearly five hours last night after a cable car jammed and shut down the entire system.
The Skyfari, which gives passengers an aerial view of the butterfly garden, baboon habitat and part of an African plains exhibit - where lions prowl - broke down when a gondola wheel went out of alignment.
The failure left 37 people stranded as 14 cars dangled in the air above the zoo.
Firefighters and police used a crane to rescue a 14-year-old girl, her mother and another adult relative who were pulled from the swinging gondola after three hours.
Officials restarted the system four and a half hours later, allowing the journey to continue so the other passengers could finally step off. No one was injured.
"It was a closed box for five hours," Robin Dean, 25, who was on the Skyfari with a friend and the friend's baby, told the New York Times. "Basically, I was hungry and a little cold."
An investigation has been launched to find out what went wrong with the cable car.
The Skyfari, which gives passengers an aerial view of the butterfly garden, baboon habitat and part of an African plains exhibit - where lions prowl - broke down when a gondola wheel went out of alignment.
The failure left 37 people stranded as 14 cars dangled in the air above the zoo.
Firefighters and police used a crane to rescue a 14-year-old girl, her mother and another adult relative who were pulled from the swinging gondola after three hours.
Officials restarted the system four and a half hours later, allowing the journey to continue so the other passengers could finally step off. No one was injured.
"It was a closed box for five hours," Robin Dean, 25, who was on the Skyfari with a friend and the friend's baby, told the New York Times. "Basically, I was hungry and a little cold."
An investigation has been launched to find out what went wrong with the cable car.
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