Report finds crack in hanger arm caused gondola crash at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort

Crack caused gondola crash

Photo: Contributed

A gondola cabin fell off the line at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort on March 10, 2025.

A report by Technical Safety BC points to a crack in a hanger arm as the primary cause of a gondola crash at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort last year.

On March 10, 2025, a cabin hanger arm broke, causing the gondola cabin to fall approximately six feet while leaving the loading station. Eight passengers were on board and they were treated for minor injuries.

Investigators found that an unidentified crack had progressed within a brittle area of the hanger arm after experiencing abrupt forces, such as striking the gondola station structure during operation. The report pointed to low material toughness in the bend of the arm, the gondola station setup and the crack not being identified during inspection.

“Gondolas and other passenger ropeways operate safely every day, but in this instance, several factors converged to result in this unlikely failure,” said Ryan Hazlett, Technical Safety BC’s leader of incident investigations. “Regardless, we understand one incident of this severity is too many and that’s why we’ve issued specific recommendations to the industry to further reduce the risk of this happening again.”

The investigation found that the GEE Gondola, built in 2000, began experiencing some operational issues, including impacts between the top of the hanger arm and the station structure, especially during high winds. The manufacturer issued service bulletins in 2002 and 2006, but modifications did not fully resolve the issue.

“An additional guide assembly to prevent impacts was developed by the manufacturer around 2003, but it was not referenced in a formal service bulletin, and the guide assembly was never installed on the GEE Gondola drive station prior to the incident,” said the report.

“In addition, some components used to align and support the guide rails were not in place on the arrival side of the return and drive stations. Without these components in place, impacts continued to occur.”

The agency issued three technical recommendations to manufacturers, owners and operators of gondolas to help prevent a similar incident from happening in the future.

Technical Safety BC has also issued a directive related to the removal of carriers from service when a suspected defect is identified and there is reason to believe that the carrier has been subject to impacts, severe loading, or reason to question critical component integrity.

The full incident investigation report and recommendations are published on Technical Safety BC’s website.