A serious incident occurred on the world’s second largest urban gondola network early this morning, killing one person and injuring twenty others. A gondola cabin reportedly hit another cabin as it entered one of the elevated stations of Medellín’s Metrocable Line K. The second cabin then fell onto a car on the street below. The incident occurred at an intermediate station called Popular, one of four stations on the line. After the incident, about 200 people remained stuck in other cabins before being evacuated. The deceased individual was identified as John Jairo Londoño Arango, age 55.
Line K is the oldest of six gondola lines that make up Medellín Metrocable aerial network, which is fully integrated with the city’s subway, streetcar and bus system. The system was built by Poma and opened in 2004 with 93 cabins connecting four stations. The lift’s cabins were manufactured by Sigma and carry up to 2,800 riders per hour in an 8 seated, 2 standing configuration. The system reached 100,000 operating hours in 2019, running seven days a week for 19 hours per day. It was recently closed for a multi-day maintenance period at the end of January.
Line K will remain closed while the incident is investigated. “Services will be suspended until the causes of this tragedy are clearly identified, the pertinent corrective measures are taken and the safety of the users of the system is guaranteed,” said Mayor Fico Gutiérrez. Other lines of the Metrocable system continue to operate.
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Is that grip missing a mobile jaw, or am I missing something. Big forces involved.
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Everything looks wet like a storm cell had just passed through. Did the cabins swing in the wind and collide while moving in opposing directions?
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The mobile jaw appears to be there, recessed in the center. Both spring assemblies are missing.
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At first glance im thinking of the following scenario: Lift running, zones bypassed cabin stalls upon entrance, nobody sees it, next cabin comes in and smokes it at high speed???
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I’ve been hesitant to post anything out of respect to the investigation work that’s being done, however I have watched over a dozen videos to get a better understanding of what happened. My observations could be totally off, but from what I saw on all the open source footage is the cabin in the end of the terminal and the one deep inside the contour look to be in the proper position(s). I’ve deduced that the cabin on the ground should be attached to the haul rope somewhere on the uphill side of the compression towers. The gondola spins counter clockwise and both cabins were moving on the downhill side. There is footage of a bystander moving what looks like grip springs out of the road, and mechanics replacing sheaves in the compression assembly on the tower after the incident was cleaned up. At no point did I see any footage that showed the haul rope in the cable catches. I’m pretty confident I know what happened but I’m reserving those speculations to myself.
It’s tragic that John Jairo Londoño Arango lost his life in a ropeway mishap, and I know there are countless professionals that take the prevention of these incidents with the utmost importance. I suspect with all the bystander testimony and CCTV footage, they’ve already got a really good idea of how it happened.
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