U/D: New York, NY - Rescuers Worked Well Into Yom Tov To Bring 68 People To Safety From Stranded Tramway

New York, NY - The Roosevelt Island tram was stuck for 12 hours Tuesday well into Yom Tov.
A string of miscues delayed the daring rescue operation on the Roosevelt Island tram - leaving many passengers and some on their Choel H'moed enjoyment trip, trapped for nearly 11 hours with little to do but beg for help.

One backup power generator failed and another was being repaired. Engineers from as far away as Switzerland who had been summoned to help failed to find a fix - and neither the NYPD or FDNY were officially in charge in the beginning of this tense drama.

Even though the trams stopped about 5:20 p.m. Tuesday, the first people weren't rescued until after 11 p.m., and the last weren't on the ground until after 4 a.m. Wedensday.

Stranded on the 30-year-old gondolas, several passengers called their loved ones on cell phones while others dropped notes to those gathered below. "Please give us ... bottles and diapers for babies," a note that fell onto First Ave. implored.
The handwritten plea, signed "The Stranded," went on to ask for a "pee bucket" and "water bottles."
The desperate passengers also wanted information. "Let us know what is happening," the note begged.

But Mayor Bloomberg and city officials had a vastly different take after courageous cops and firefighters pulled off the high-wire rescue.

Bloomberg insisted everything "worked perfectly. It ... showed that all of these people worked together," he said. "We did what we had to do. We got everybody down safely."

Police and fire officials said they worked in partnership under the city Office of Emergency Management's oversight - even though cops appeared to take a lead role, they all worked under a unified command: NYPD Chief Joseph Esposito, Calvin Drayton of the Office of Emergency Management and Chief Joseph Pfeiffer of the FDNY, with EMS and Hatzolah standing by. Cops and firefighters said they chose to move slowly rather than rushing and risk making a deadly mistake.

Yet the rescue operation didn't really get underway until after the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp., which runs the tram, had spent three hours in a futile effort to restart the gondolas - even calling an engineer in Switzerland in a failed attempt to find a solution.

Roosevelt Island officials still don't know why the power blew, destroying three massive fuses. They also revealed that one backup generator had broken in September and a second wouldn't start though it was last inspected less than a month ago.

It wasn't until 8:30 p.m. that Roosevelt Island officials turned over the operation to the NYPD's ESU.
The elite cops spent several hours setting up special rescue baskets that could go along the tram line. But only after they got one basket in place to pluck 47 people from the tram closest to Roosevelt Island did engineers tell them that they couldn't use another basket at the same time to save the 21 other people above First Ave.

Officials finally summoned a massive 200-foot crane at midnight to help lower the people in the second gondola to safety.
Crane operator Kerry Jones, 50, said he was asleep by the time he got a call to come to the job at 1 a.m. "Usually we get a phone call right away for an emergency," he said. "We were surprised it took so long."

At 2:55 a.m., ESU cops using the emergency cage plucked the last 11 passengers from the gondola closest to Roosevelt Island. "We said, 'We gotcha so just trust us and we'll get you to the basket,'" said Detective David Fiol, 43, one of the officers who risked his life during the rescue. "Safety was paramount."

Slightly more than an hour later, cops rode a basket attached to the crane and began guiding passengers above First Ave. to safety. Firefighters later joined the cops on several trips.

Long hours of drama

TUESDAY

5:22
Cops respond to report of a Roosevelt Island tram failure and find 68 people stranded on two gondolas because of a power outage.

5:23-8:23
Tram engineers try unsuccessfully to get the power running. The power kicks on briefly at 8:15 p.m., allowing the trams to move 75 feet before the system breaks down again. Officials call Switzerland and wake up tram manufacturers, but no fix can be found. The tram had no working backup power generator.

8:30
NYPD devises rescue plan from Roosevelt Island. Two rescue cages, designed to hold 15 people each, are assembled and hoisted onto tram superstructure.

10:45
Ten Emergency Service Unit cops board a rescue cage and conduct a test run.

11:00
Rescue begins. Cops roll the cage along the tram line to the Roosevelt Island-bound gondola, removing the first 13 people, they reached Roosevelt Island around 11:30 and they were greeted with cheers, cookies and for several that were Chasidic Jews, they had Matzo for them.

WEDNESDAY

12:00
After being told by an engineer that cops can’t use a second cage on the Manhattan-bound gondola, a city Office of Emergency Management official requests that a crane assist in the rescue.

12:20
Cops rescue nine more people from the Roosevelt Island-bound tram.

2:00
Fifteen more people safely evacuate the Roosevelt Island-bound gondola.

2:15
A giant crane arrives at E. 60th St. and First Ave. in Manhattan from Bay Crane in Long Island City, Queens.

2:55
Eleven more people are plucked from the Roosevelt Island-bound gondola, using the rescue cage. The gondola is now empty - but no one has been removed yet from the tram on the Manhattan side of the river.

3:30
The crane is erected on First Ave.

4:00
Crane operator, ESU cops and firefighters rescue the first 11 people from Manhattan-bound gondola, including a 13-month-old girl and a 14-month-old girl.

4:07
The last nine people are rescued from the Manhattan-bound gondola with the crane, concluding the operation.