Watch the operation to rescue 20 passengers trapped overnight, hanging between land and sky in an Alpine cable-car gondola in southern Germany.
Their sleepless night in the cable-car gondola is finally over. Emergency helicopters on Saturday successfully rescued 20 people, who had been trapped for 17 hours halfway up 1,880-meter Tegelberg Mountain in southern Germany.
The gondola was halted on Friday after a para-glider tandem flight crashed into the cables. Suspended 100 meters above the ground, the passengers of the car could do nothing but wait till dawn. Among them was a four-year -old child.
A mountain rescue specialist was lowered into the gondola late on Friday, providing enough food and clothing to keep the trapped tourists warm and fed through the night.
Helicopter crews lifted the cable-car operator and 19 tourists to safety early on Saturday morning. The entire rescue operation took about two hours.