A team of Pakistan Army\u2019s Special Services Group (SSG) has kicked off a rescue operation to save eight people, including six schoolchildren, who were left stranded mid-air after the cable of a chairlift broke in Allai Tehsil in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Battagram district on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Helicopters of Pakistan Army Aviation and Pakistan Air Force are participating in the rescue operation along with the SSG troops.<\/p>\n
The open chair lift became stranded halfway across a ravine and was hanging by a single cable after the other snapped, Shariq Riaz Khattak a rescue official at the site told Reuters.<\/p>\n
The rescue mission is complicated due to gusty winds in the area and the fact the helicopter’s rotor blades risk further destabilising the lift, he said.<\/p>\n
One chopper has already conducted surveillance and then returned, and another one would be sent shortly, he added.<\/p>\n
Army to \u2018continue rescue operation till night\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n According to a private news channel, Army Aviation and Special Service Group teams are once again trying to conduct the rescue operation.<\/p>\n The operation has become very difficult as there is another cable 30 feet above the chairlift which can collide with the helicopter.<\/p>\n However, the rescue operation is being conducted with extreme caution.<\/p>\n Moreover, the Pakistan Army is keeping into consideration other options to continue the rescue operation in case it becomes dark. The army will continue the rescue operation till night.<\/p>\n Speaking to a private news channel, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Nazeer Ahmed assured that the children inside the chairlift are fine. He said that they are in continuous contact with them.<\/p>\n According to Geo News, the chairlift started shaking as the Pakistan Army\u2019s rescue helicopter approached it and there is a risk of the chairlift losing balance.<\/p>\n Other options to conduct the rescue operation, which is being deemed risky, were under consideration including a sling operation by the SSG team.<\/p>\n Wing Commander (retd) Asim Nawaz said the sling operation should be started at the earliest.<\/p>\n Sling operations are aerial operations where large loads are moved in geographically difficult terrains.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a possibility of bad weather in this area. It is better if the helicopter is 60 to 80 feet away from the chairlift,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Speaking about the operation, the former military officer said that a commando will approach closer to the chairlift during the sling operation.<\/p>\n “A chairlift stuck at a height of about 900 ft midway due to breakage in one of its cable in Battagram. 8 persons including 6 children [are] stranded,” the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in a statement.<\/p>\n The statement said NDMA has provided coordination support to Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA).<\/p>\n “After coordination Pak Army helicopter has been despatched for [the] rescue operation,” it added.<\/p>\n The incident was confirmed by Mansehra Deputy Inspector General of Police Tahir Ayub who said there is no option but to rescue the stranded passengers through a copter.<\/p>\n The cable hangs in the middle of a deep ravine surrounded by stunning mountains, where cable cars are frequently used to connect remote villages and towns.<\/p>\n Syed Hammad Haider, a senior KP provincial official, said the cable car was hanging about 1,000 to 1,200 feet above the ground.<\/p>\n “We have requested the KP government to provide a helicopter because the relief activity is not possible without the help of a helicopter,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A team of Pakistan Army\u2019s Special Services Group (SSG) has kicked off a rescue operation to save eight people, including six schoolchildren, who were left stranded mid-air after the cable of a chairlift broke in Allai Tehsil in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Battagram district on Tuesday. Helicopters of Pakistan Army Aviation and Pakistan Air Force are participating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":18789,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,2],"tags":[457,10008],"class_list":["post-18788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-pakistan","tag-ispr","tag-pakistan-armys-special-services-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}