Turkey sentences 8 people to prison terms in deadly 2024 cable car accident

ISTANBUL (AP) — A court in southern Turkey sentenced eight people on Monday to prison terms over a 2024 cable car accident in the coastal resort of Antalya that killed one passenger and injured seven.

Four of the defendants were convicted of causing death and injury through negligence and were sentenced to 7 1/2 years each, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported. The other four were sentenced to between three years and four months and five years for the same offense.

In the April 12, 2024 accident, one of the cable car gondolas hit a pole and burst open, sending its passengers plummeting to the rocks below. The cable car system then shut down, leaving 174 people stranded in their gondolas high above ground — some for nearly 23 hours — before they were rescued.

The cable car carries tourists from Konyaalti Beach to a restaurant and viewing platform at the summit of the 618-meter (2,010-foot) Tunektepe peak. The accident happened during the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Most of the defendants in the case were employees were employees of ANET, a subsidiary of Antalya Metropolitan Municipality that operates the cable car in the Mediterranean city.