Pakistan cable car video: 15-year-old survivor says dramatic rescue gives him ‘a second life’

Among the passengers trapped in the suspended cable car in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Battagram district, three of the children who were part of the group found out they had successfully cleared their Class 9 examinations after their rescue, local media said.

With the results of the exams – for students aged roughly 15 – announced on Tuesday, three of the students received the news that they had graduated to Class 10.

Local media reports identified them as Attaullah, Niaz Mohammad and Osama Sharif. The three are students at Government High School Batangi Pashto Alai, Geo TV reported.

On Tuesday, when the rescue operation was ongoing, the community that had seen several cable car accidents in the last few years felt like “doomsday”.

One of the relatives of a stranded Pakistan student was quoted as saying by the BBC that “it was like doomsday for the area”.

Fahim Udin Shah said: “Everyone rushed out of their homes. A kid from almost every household was here.”

The cause of the malfunction that risked the lives of at least eight individuals on Tuesday is still unknown.

Late yesterday, all eight individuals were successfully rescued after about 15 hours.

Due to the absence of conventional infrastructure, improvised cable cars are utilised in distant regions of Pakistan. Despite the inherent risks, these cable cars serve as essential transportation solutions for communities with limited alternatives.

According to local media, these makeshift cable cars are commonly employed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan, and eastern Mansehra. These regions encounter geographical obstacles and have limited infrastructure, including schools and roads.

Geo TV reported that the necessity of connecting communities in these isolated areas has driven locals to create these cable cars using leftover materials, often without formal permits.

These cable cars are often built by the local communities, primarily from discarded materials like those from pick-up trucks. These cabins are then attached to cables, sometimes made of scrap iron, using ropes.

While cable cars present a practical solution for the lack of conventional infrastructure in certain regions of Pakistan, safety concerns remain.

In 2017, an illicit cable car in Murree, Punjab, crashed, claiming the lives of 11 passengers.

Just last December, a cable car mishap occurred in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where a rope snapped and 12 children were stranded and had to be rescued.

The eight individuals, including several students, huddled together inside the cable car and prayed for their safety, CNN reported.

The passengers were on the way to their school when the cable snapped and left them hanging about 900ft in the air.

They reportedly huddled together in fear as their cries were left unheard. But after 15 hours – with the help of helicopters, zipliners and prayers — the group of eight were brought back to safety.

One of the survivors of the Pakistan cable car ordeal has called the rescue “miraculous”.

Fifteen-year-old Osama Sharif said: “I had heard stories about miracles, but I saw a miraculous rescue happening with my own eyes.”

He told the Associated Press: “We suddenly felt a jolt, and it all happened so suddenly that we thought all of us are going to die.

“We cried, and tears were in our eyes, as we feared the cable car will go down,” he added.

Local authorities in Battagram, Pakistan were getting ready to undertake the repair of the malfunctioning cable car on Wednesday, it was reported.

The cause of the malfunction that risked the lives of at least eight individuals on Tuesday is still unknown.

Interim prime minister Anwaar ul-Haq Kakar expressed concern over the cable car’s failure and urged authorities to conduct safety checks on all private mountain chairlifts.

However, fear has gripped the villagers who use the cable car to travel long distances in the valley.

Ata Ullah, one of the survivors of the cable car ordeal told Associated Press: “I feel fear in my mind about using the cable car, but I have no other option. I will go to my school again when the cable car is repaired.”

Some of the students who were stuck in a cable car suspended over a ravine in northwest Pakistan have spoken out about their 15-hour-long ordeal.

One of the survivors said that he “thought it was my last day and I will be no more”.

The 15-year-old, one of seven students travelling on the chairlift when one of its cables snapped, expressed gratitude for having survived the incident. “God has granted me a second life,” Attaullah Shah was quoted as saying by AFP.

Read the full account of the survivors here:

Late on Tuesday, when the rescue operation involving helicopters and zipliners finally brought home the last of the stranded students, relief washed over the community as families broke into hugs and slogans of “God is great” reverberated through the valley.

One villager identified as Janahzaib told the New York Times: “In that very instant, our comfort was found solely in our prayers. The entire valley is now filled with joy.”

While cable cars present a practical solution for the lack of conventional infrastructure in certain regions of Pakistan, safety concerns remain.

In 2017, an illicit cable car in Murree, Punjab, crashed, claiming the lives of 11 passengers.

Just last December, a cable car mishap occurred in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where a rope snapped and 12 children were stranded and had to be rescued.

Eight people were pulled to safety on Tuesday after a dramatic rescue effort hauled them from a cable car left dangling 900ft (274m) above a ravine in northwest Pakistan.

One of the two cable lines carrying the car snapped at around 0700 local time [GMT 0200] as seven students were travelling to school alongside one adult in a remote mountainous area in Battagram, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 200km (124 miles) north of the capital Islamabad.

Despite a desperate rescue mission, most of the passengers were still trapped well into the night as the car clung to the lone cable, while local residents watched on anxiously from below and crowds gathered around televisions in offices, shops, restaurants and hospitals across Pakistan to watch the operation unfold.

Army commandos were called in as three helicopters initially scrambled to save those onboard, with efforts impeded by high winds and another rope some 30ft above the cable car.

Chris Stevenson and Andy Gregory report: