Cable car riders suspended above New York City’s East River for hours

NEW YORK – What should have been a routine ride across the East River became an hours-long ordeal after what authorities described as a power failure left two cable cars carrying almost 70 people dangling hundreds of feet in the air.

Police responding to the incident on Tuesday night mounted a daring midair rescue, hoisting passengers from the stranded cars using a diesel-powered rescue gondola capable of holding about 10 people at a time. An industrial crane and bucket were used to remove people aboard the other car, which was suspended above Manhattan, police said.The rescue effort stretched into Wednesday morning, when by 5am – almost 12 hours after the cars stopped – all passengers had been rescued.There were no reported injuries, police said.At least a dozen of those stranded in the tramcars were school-age children or babies.Both cars of the Roosevelt Island Tramway, which shuttles commuters and tourists between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island while offering breathtaking views of the city from up to 75 metres high, stopped moving around 5:15pm on Tuesday, said Herb Berman, president of the agency that operates the system.The rescue effort moved smoothly, but slowly, as police officers in the gondola pulled alongside a car – to within a couple of feet – and hoisted passengers up one at a time.One of the tramcars had 46 passengers plus an operator, the other 21 passengers and an operator, police said; each can hold about 125 people.- Nampa-APAn industrial crane and bucket were used to remove people aboard the other car, which was suspended above Manhattan, police said.The rescue effort stretched into Wednesday morning, when by 5am – almost 12 hours after the cars stopped – all passengers had been rescued.There were no reported injuries, police said.At least a dozen of those stranded in the tramcars were school-age children or babies.Both cars of the Roosevelt Island Tramway, which shuttles commuters and tourists between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island while offering breathtaking views of the city from up to 75 metres high, stopped moving around 5:15pm on Tuesday, said Herb Berman, president of the agency that operates the system.The rescue effort moved smoothly, but slowly, as police officers in the gondola pulled alongside a car – to within a couple of feet – and hoisted passengers up one at a time.One of the tramcars had 46 passengers plus an operator, the other 21 passengers and an operator, police said; each can hold about 125 people.- Nampa-AP