Four people are recovering in hospital after a frightening fall from a chairlift at a ski resort near Kelowna B.C.
Rescue crews were called to Crystal Mountain Ski Resort on Saturday after a ski lift chair carrying passengers fell more than seven metres to the ground.
One person was airlifted from the scene while three others were taken to Kelowna General Hospital by ambulance.
Officials say two of the injured remain in critical condition.
Resort staff have confirmed that the injured include two ski patrollers, a ski instructor, and a visitor to the resort.
Mike Morin, the resort’s manager, says this is an extremely rare circumstance and the first time an incident like this has happened since the resort opened in 1967.
“One of the empty chairs was swinging and struck the tower, tower number two, on our double chair and caused a deropement and the chair came down to the ground,” he told CTV Vancouver.
Witnesses say they saw the passengers tumble to the ground.
“From what I saw, they fell pretty hard,” said Carson Moss.
Tyler Mow told CTV Vancouver that the ski lift did not feel right when he was on it.
“The chairs felt springy earlier in the day,” Mow said.
“We were just commenting that it felt funny and that something was different.”
While paramedics rushed to treat the victims, other skiers remained stuck on the lift and had to be evacuated.
“We had to wait for everyone to come up and harness us down,” said Kaite Cornet.
Officials say an inspection of the chair lift will now take place to determine what went wrong.
With a report from CTV Vancouver’s Norma Reid
