Gondola Cable cut - Squamish sea to sky gondola

[ExtraSlow]

Sounds like deliberate sabotage. Happened outside operating hours, no injuries reported.
https://www.timescolonist.com/business/rcmp-say-sea-to-sky-gondola-cable-may-have-been-cut-on-purpose-1.23911705
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[lilmira]

Steel cable under tension scares me, I don't want to be anywhere near one when it breaks.

[killramos]

Disgruntled former employee?

[ExtraSlow]

I'm betting ecoterrorists. Greenpeace, tides foundation etc.

[killramos]

That was almost my first thought too, but in such a case I think would probably would have found half an ecoterrorist at the cut.

It would be great if BC started feeling the brunt of this craziness, like that gondola is completely fucked for a very long time from what I understand?

[ExtraSlow]

Those cables aren't easy to restring. Plus all the cars hit the ground too, so expect serious damage to at least a few of those. Probably fucked some of the tower hardware too.
Fucking greenies.

We did the Shannon falls hike this summer which is right beside that place

[speedog]

I'm betting ecoterrorists. Greenpeace, tides foundation etc.

Granola munchers with too much time on their hands, looking at you SP. :)

[nismodrifter]

What kind of tool would be required to cut such cable? Grinder?

[ExtraSlow]

I'd think a grinder would be the most portable tool for that. BBC reports that particular cable was 55mm diameter (2.2 inches for speedog). That's one thicc bitch.

[Sentry]

Yeah milwaukee m18 cordless grinder would zip through that in like 10 seconds. I wouldn't wanna be the guy to do it though. If it was sabotage Im surprised they didn't find a guy reduced to hamburger meat near the cut.

[revelations]

Im no cable cutting expert, but if were to try to cut a cable I would climb a tower and get a grinder in between the guide rollers - that way both cable ends shoot out left and right through the guide rollers.

Left wing extremists abound in BC. I recall back in the early 90s the tree huggers were spiking trees to prevent them from being felled (and harming forestry workers).

The gondola has been open since 2014 - what has changed? Disgruntled employee?

[Sentry]

Cut it halfway then shoot roman candles at it like Joe Dirt til she pops

[shakalaka]

Shit’s scary. Especially if someone did it while they were operating.

[darthVWader]

And all this time I assumed there would be safety mechanisms in place to stop the cars from falling. Like if the cable snapped and a quick release was sensed then something would grab. Just unreal how easy it was to destroy the whole system.

[16hypen3sp]

My personal theory on this is the following:

A person or persons wanted to cut the cable but not all the way thru. They may have wanted to cut it to a point where failure would NOT immediately occur, instead, total failure would occur when the machine was loaded and under motion/operation.

Instead, they cut into the cable too much and the last of the strands ripped apart causing immediate failure.

The idiots responsible most likely wanted the gondola cabins laden with people when failure occurred.

I hope I'm wrong tho.

[ExtraSlow]

If a group wants biggest headlines, or carnage, Whistler peak to peak would be pretty dramatic.

[Disoblige]

Things like this make me want to know if it was a calculated maneuver or just plain stupidity in how it was executed and the person(s) involved are lucky to be alive.
I guess it might be somewhere in between. I also am curious about the motive.

[botox]

Damn, we are heading to Vancouver next week and we were going to do this.


Yeah milwaukee m18 cordless grinder would zip through that in like 10 seconds. I wouldn't wanna be the guy to do it though. If it was sabotage Im surprised they didn't find a guy reduced to hamburger meat near the cut.

I would think if it snapped while they were cutting they would probably shit themselves, but otherwise ok since the tension would immediately pull the cable sideways away from them. It would be anyone standing at a distance that would be at risk of losing their head from the whiplash.


My personal theory on this is the following:

A person or persons wanted to cut the cable but not all the way thru. They may have wanted to cut it to a point where failure would NOT immediately occur, instead, total failure would occur when the machine was loaded and under motion/operation.

Instead, they cut into the cable too much and the last of the strands ripped apart causing immediate failure.

The idiots responsible most likely wanted the gondola cabins laden with people when failure occurred.

I hope I'm wrong tho.
I think it's the opposite and think they wanted to hurt the company rather than innocent people. Maybe a disgruntled employee or something as killramos said. Not to say this isn't serious as it is, but add in a few casualties and that takes it to another level.

[BavarianBeast]

My personal theory on this is the following:

A person or persons wanted to cut the cable but not all the way thru. They may have wanted to cut it to a point where failure would NOT immediately occur, instead, total failure would occur when the machine was loaded and under motion/operation.

Instead, they cut into the cable too much and the last of the strands ripped apart causing immediate failure.

The idiots responsible most likely wanted the gondola cabins laden with people when failure occurred.

I hope I'm wrong tho.

This is what I thought. They probably cut like 9 out of 12 strands and figured the other 3 would shear in tension while in operation the following day.

The cable breaking wouldn't of been that bad, they design these gondolas to have sufficient sag in the line and would not of likely carried as much force as many of you are thinking.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Disoblige]

What would be the motivation for it though?

I feel like it was probably Arash
Drone CNC machine that did the cutting.

[killramos]

What would be the motivation for it though?

I feel like it was probably Arash

The gondola doesn’t run on pixie dust

[ZenOps]

Hmm.. Outside shot it might be the company that constructed it. If you find out a couple years after the fact that you made a horrendous mistake in capacity: Noone ever seems to confess to it, they would rather hire a saboteur when there is no chance of human liability. This tends to be the "Russian solution" when you accidentally pour some concrete that ends up being superbrittle.

[lilmira]

Don't worry, the new cable will be made of 100% natural biodegradable hemp fibre.

[ercchry]

Disappointed in the lack of James Bond references...

[ExtraSlow]

Disappointed in the lack of James Bond references...

87148

[ExtraSlow]

Confirmed it was a deliberate cut.
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/sea-to-sky-gondola-sabotaged-concludes-report/amp

[dirtsniffer]

Anyone else read the acuren report? Too bad they redacted all the SEM photos

[nismodrifter]

Link to report:
https://www.technicalsafetybc.ca/sites/default/files/alerts/TechnicalSafetyBC_II_SeaToSkyGondola_Aug2019.pdf

[Buster]

Anyone else read the acuren report? Too bad they redacted all the SEM photos

whats SEM?

[dirtsniffer]

Scanning electron microscope

[revelations]

Definitely cut and not torched. Also, having tower access like that is a no no at most ski areas.