Bronx Zoo gondola passengers safe after repair

updated 11:26 p.m. ET July 9, 2008

NEW YORK - Dozens of sightseers were stranded in cable cars over Bronx Zoo animal habitats Wednesday afternoon until the gondola system was repaired more than four hours later.

The system abruptly halted about 5:30 p.m. when one of the cars became misaligned. Firefighters and police used a crane to rescue three people in that car, but 34 other people were stranded in the other cars halted by the breakdown.

Once the misaligned gondola was back on track, the Skyfari system was restarted and the once-stranded passengers could complete their rides at the regular exits.

The Skyfari passes over the butterfly garden, the baboon habitat and part of the African plains exhibit, where lions and gazelles roam.

Zoo officials and rescuers said they didn't know why a car had become misaligned.

Neighborhood resident Gwen Lawson said she saw the paralyzed cable cars through binoculars from her apartment shortly after a thunderstorm.

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