Author: AP Archive
886View
2m 35sLenght

French/Nat The clear-up operation is continuing following the cable car accident early this morning in the French Alps in which 20 people were killed. The gondola crashed hundreds of feet to the ground on the slopes of a ski resort, killing everybody on board. Officials said no tourists were riding the private cable car which was carrying workers to the Pic de Bure space observatory. The gondola fell 262 feet onto a rock-studded grass slope above Saint-Etienne-en-Devoluy, 400 miles southeast of Paris. It was the worst cable car disaster in the country's history. In 1989 eight people died in an accident in the Isere region of the French Alps. Authorities said it was not yet known what caused the accident on the lift as it was about one-quarter the way up the mountain. All 20 victims on board were French, and were on the way to the Pic de Bure observatory. It's at the top of the mountain at 8-thousand-887 feet and specialises in radio astronomy. SOUNDBITE: (French) "A cable car was on it's way to the Pic de Bure fell and that fall led to the deaths of 20 people, the 20 passengers, whose identity we know, and whose identities we have told you" SUPER CAPTION: Michel Selaries, Chief Prosecutor of Gap The accident at Saint-Etienne-en-Devoluy was the latest disaster to hit the French Alps, where massive avalanches killed 12 people and swept away 23 chalets on February 9th near the ski resort of Chamonix. A month later, a fire that broke out on a truck in the Mont Blanc tunnel killed 45 people. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/8317003a219ddc56366b9bcbc5c7b24b Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork