SAM Magazine—Barcelona, Spain, Jan. 20, 2025—A chairlift failure injured more than a dozen people Saturday morning at Astún resort in the Spanish Pyrenees. The bullwheel on a 1985 fixed-grip quad detached, causing the lift to derope on numerous towers, according to liftblog.com’s Peter Landsman.Credit to Meteosojuela La Rioja

“Without a bullwheel retention device, the bullwheel came to rest vertically and the lift rapidly lost tension, causing chairs to contact the ground along the line,” reported Landsman.

The cause(s) of the bullwheel detachment is unknown and under investigation, according to a statement from the resort. “The [lift] installation has all the permissions and revisions,” the statement added.

The resort shut for the day following the incident in order to speed rescue and evacuation work. It took the resort two-and-a-half hours to fully evacuate the lift.

The resort reported that 15 people were injured in the accident, three of whom had to be transferred to the hospital. Regional services initially estimated that more than 30 people had been injured in the incident.

Among those taken to the hospital were two 18-year-olds who remain in intensive care. One is reportedly stable, while the other is said to be under observation but improving.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez posted to X (formerly Twitter) that he was “shocked by the news of the accident.” He extended his support to Jorge Azcón, president of the Aragon region, who praised “the speed and efficiency of the public services involved in the rescue operation and assistance” in a separate post to X.

Azcón thanked the public administrations involved in the incident response and observed that “fortunately the accident in Astún has had less impact than expected,” with only two seriously injured.