One person has been confirmed dead after a gondola cabin detached from its cable and crashed down a mountainside at a ski resort in Switzerland. The incident, which occurred at the Engelberg–Titlis Ski Resort, was captured on video showing the lone tram car tumbling violently down a snowy mountainside.
Details about the accident remain thin. However, the Nidwalden cantonal police said that investigators are looking into the incident and its cause. The victim’s identity and cause of death have not yet been released. However, CNN reported that they were the only person in the gondola car at the time of the accident.
The video of the incident, published by Blick, can be viewed below. While it is not graphic, viewers should still watch with caution.
Gondola & Chairlift Accidents: Rare but Not Unheard Of
It is rare to hear about serious chairlift or gondola car accidents, but they do happen. In May 2025, a gondola car detached from its cable at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort in Golden, British Columbia. Eight people were on board at the time of the accident. However, since the car fell just 10 feet after departing from the lower terminal, there were no injuries.
In April of the same year, at Vail Resort’s Attitash Mountain in New Hampshire, a quad chair carrying a 49-year-old man detached, and the passenger fell roughly 20 feet. He was badly injured and taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
Though no one was injured, in 2024, Winter Park’s gondola suffered a mechanical failure that stranded more than 180 people for up to 5 hours, as ski patrol manually evacuated each gondola car.
The most infamous and deadly gondola accident in U.S. history took place in Vail in 1976. Two cable cars detached and fell roughly 125 feet, killing four people and seriously injuring eight others. That accident made international headlines and prompted regulatory changes to gondola safety and design standards.
While there is very little verifiable information about this most recent gondola accident in Switzerland, more information will become available as the story develops. We will update this article as it does.
