It will take weeks before further tests are completed and the Ngong Ping 360 cable car is opened to tourists. Three technical problems that occurred almost simultaneously were blamed for the two-hour service interruption of the ride eight days ago, operator Skyrail-ITM said. Announcing the results yesterday of an investigation into the incident that left 500 invited guests stranded in mid-air during a trial run on June 17, Skyrail-ITM chairman Ken Chapman said he could not give a definite opening date. Mr Chapman said three problems were to blame for the incident: a glitch in the computer responsible for controlling the space between cable cars, a friction problem on the conveyor rail system and the failure of a gate leading into a cable-car parking area. Things began to unravel when staff realised the distance between cars was shorter than planned. Two cars were found to be stalled on the conveyor rail system. To solve the problem, staff tried to move one of the stalled cars into a parking area, but the car became stuck when the gate malfunctioned. It took an hour and 48 minutes to fix the problem. Mr Chapman ruled out design or structural flaws, human error, poor maintenance and wet weather as causes of the problems, and also said running the system on that day at its maximum loading - 109 cars - was also not a cause. The investigation findings have been submitted to the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department and the MTR Corporation. Edmund Leung Kwong-ho, former president of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, suspected the problems were caused by overloading which led to a computer system crash. 'To a large extent, the simultaneous problems are due to bad luck. But it is also attributed to inadequate testing. I think the company deliberately tried to operate at full capacity to find unidentified problems,' he said.
