Crews rescue 21 people on stuck tram cars in New Mexico

(AP) — New Mexico search and rescue crews used ropes and helicopters Saturday to rescue 21 people who were stranded overnight in two tram cars after an iced-over cable caused the cars to get stuck high up in the Sandia Mountains overlooking Albuquerque.

Lt. Robert Arguelles a Bernalillo County Fire Department spokesperson, said early Saturday afternoon that crews first rescued 20 people stranded in one car and several hours later rescued a 21st person stranded by themselves in a second car.

All the people on the two cars were employees of the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway or a mountaintop restaurant, and the 20 in one car were being ferried down to the base of the mountains at the end of their workdays, Arguelles said.

The other employee had been heading up the mountain to provide overnight security when the tram system shut down Friday night due to icing, Arguelles said.

There were no reported injuries among those stranded, Arguelles said. “More just pretty frustrated.”

A rescue helicopter works to help passengers who were stuck overnight on a Sandia Peak Tramway on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022, in Albuquerque, N.M. A Bernalillo County Fire Department spokesman said 16 of the stranded people were rescued as of Saturday afternoon as rescue operations continued. The spokesman said those aboard the car when it got stuck at 10 p.m. Friday were all employees of the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway or a mountaintop restaurant. (Roberto E. Rosales /The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

To rescue the 20 people in the one car, operators were able to move it to a nearby support tower more than halfway up the mountain, and search and rescue personnel early Saturday morning hiked to the area and climbed the tower to deliver blankets and other supplies to those inside the heated car, Arguelles said.

Search and rescue personnel over several hours used ropes and other equipment to lower the stranded employees about 85 feet (26 meters) to the ground before escorting them to a nearby landing zone in the steep and rocky terrain where the tower was located, Arguelles said.

The 20 people were then ferried by helicopter several at a time to the base of the mountains, he said.

Arguelles said the second car with the one employee aboard was higher up the mountain and at location where the car was too high above the ground to lower people by ropes.

A passenger is rescued Saturday, January 1, 2022, after a Sandia Peak Tramway car that was stranded overnight on New Year’s Eve in Albuquerque, N.M. A Bernalillo County Fire Department spokesman said 16 of the stranded people were rescued as of Saturday afternoon as rescue operations continued. The spokesman said those aboard the car when it got stuck at 10 p.m. Friday were all employees of the Sandia Peak Aerial Tramway or a mountaintop restaurant. (Roberto E. Rosales /The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

But the tram system was able to inch the second car down the cable to the rescue site at the support tower, and rescuers then used ropes to lower the 21st person as was done with the others, Arguelles said.

Brian Coon, a tramway system manager, said there was an unusually fast accumulation of ice on one of the cables that made it droop below the tram, making it dangerous to keep going, KOB-TV reported.