20:56, 16 September 2025

Director and chief engineer of the Elbrus cable car sent to pretrial detention

After the death of three people, a court in Nalchik ordered the director and chief engineer of the company that operated the emergency cable car on Elbrus to be taken into custody.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" reported, on September 12, as a result of a cable car cable breaking on Mount Elbrus, three people died. According to the investigation, several more people were injured when the suspended chairs with people fell onto the rocks. Today it became known that the director and chief engineer of the company servicing the cable car have been arrested in connection with the deaths.

After the incident, a criminal case was opened under the article on the death of two or more people as a result of the provision of services that do not meet safety requirements (part 3 of article 238 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, provides for up to 10 years of imprisonment).

A court in Kabardino-Balkaria today chose a preventive measure for both suspects in the criminal case on the accident on the cable car on Mount Elbrus. The director and chief engineer of Elbrus MKD LLC, the company that operated and maintained the cable car, were sent to custody.

Investigators insisted on the arrest of the suspects. The court found their arguments justified and sent the suspects to a pre-trial detention center for two months, according to an official statement from the Investigative Committee of the republic.

The issue of the preventive measure for the accused was considered by the Nalchik City Court, Interfax-Yug reports with reference to the united press service of the regional courts. The head of Kabardino-Balkaria, Kazbek Kokov, commenting earlier on the tragedy on the cable car, named the probable cause of the accident - "the cable came off the roller of one of the supports."

"Caucasian Knot" also wrote that 12 people were injured when the cable car broke in Nalchik on August 8. All the victims were tourists, the head of the republic said. By the morning of August 9, four people remained in the hospital, one patient had undergone surgery.

The cable car in the city park of Nalchik was built in 1968, the main reason for the cable break was said to be wear and tear of the lift. Tourists have repeatedly complained about the condition of the cable car, a ticket for which costs 500 rubles: they wrote that the lift is “very old,” “everything is rusty,” and “everything is held together by snot,” and also criticized the design: “a seat with a chain and that’s it.”

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Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/415466