Insane Drone Footage of 8 People Trapped In The World's Most Unsafe Cable Car 1,200 Feet In the Air

NY Post - Hair-raising drone video shows six children and two adults dangling hundreds of feet in the air inside a cable car in Pakistan — before they were finally rescued in a daring helicopter operation.

The jaw-dropping, eye-level footage obtained by the BBC and Sky News shows one of the adults clinging onto the chassis of the listing gondola some 900 feet above a ravine in the remote region of Battagram.

A child appears to be on the phone inside the car as the drone circles just feet away.

The eight passengers, who got stuck early Tuesday when one of the cables broke on their way to a school, were finally saved from the 16-hour vertiginous ordeal in a rescue operation involving helicopters and military commandos.

I can't stop playing this scenario in my head. The whole town of Battagram is screaming in terror as 8 members of their community are hanging onto their lives by a thread. They're 1,200 feet in the air, trapped inside the most unsafe piece of equipment the world has ever seen. Everybody is certain that they're about to witness something that will scar them for life.

And in the midst of all the commotion, one hero thinks to himself, "This would make for some fucking sick drone footage."

Not that the drone was hurting anything. If anything it probably helped give the rescuers a closer look at what they were dealing with. The drone most likely helped save their lives. But imagine being one of these people stuck in the world's shittiest cable car for 16 hours, you probably feel like nobody is ever going to come for you, and someone is buzzing a fancy drone around your head. I can't help but think that would be mildly infuriating. 

Especially considering one of the rescuers says the kids were terrified that the slightest movement of the rope would send them plummeting to their death.

“When I first reached the cable car, the children shouted at me out of fear. They were scared that if the rope moved, the lift would fall,” he said. 

So I would imagine they weren't thrilled with sharp drone blades spinning 1000 mph next to the only rope that's keeping them alive. All it takes is one unexpected breeze to blow the drone off course it's game over.

But in the end it all worked out. And now the survivors have a fire new profile pic.

The rescue itself sounded wild. The resourcefulness of the Pakistani people is admirable.

One of the rescuers flown in to help save the group was Muhammad Ali Swati, a 34-year-old zipliner and adventure tourism operator, The Telegraph reported. 

One of the youngest was grabbed by a soldier attached to a chopper, while others were lowered to the ground in a makeshift chairlift devised with a wooden bed frame and ropes. 

Advertisement

That's one hell of an operation. Amazing how the helicopter only managed to save 1 of the 8 people before they were called off and brought in the bed frame. "Sorry guys, it's too dangerous for the military grade helicopter. Were sending you a zipline enthusiast on a bed." But who cares how they got it done. The makeshift bed frame chairlift saved 7 lives. Props to Pakistan. But maybe upgrade your cable car. Or maybe find another way to cross that valley.