cable car disaster Accident on the Mount Faber– Sentosa cable- car service. The disaster occurred in January 1983 and claimed the lives of seven people— Pritam Kaur and her son- in- law Mahinder Singh; engineer Fred Kunimoto; businessman Fred M. Kresser; and Dr Aileen Wong, her husband Dr John Sendrick and his nurse Pam Mitchel. At about 6 p.m. on 30 January 1983, a Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) tug began towing a drill ship, the Eniwetok, away from Keppel Wharf. Shortly afterwards, the vessel’s gantry tower snagged one of the two cables above, pulling it out of place. Two cable cars were dislodged and flung more than 50 m into the water.

A major rescue operation was carried out to evacuate the remaining passengers trapped in four cars on the cables. An operations centre was established at PSA Tower under the control of Philip Yeo, then second permanent secretary (Defence). Eventually, helicopters rescued 13 people from the dangling cars. The grandson of victim Pritam Kaur, 22- month- old Taswinder Singh, survived the fall and was rescued from the water.

Photo credit: Singapore Press Holdings/ The Straits Times