The design of Lantau's Ngong Ping 360 cable car is safe, officials at the attraction insist, but an incident that left passengers shivering in mid-air might have been avoided if more checks had been made.
Operations at Ngong Ping 360 were suspended for 10 days after more than 800 passengers spent up to two hours stuck in gondolas on Wednesday in temperatures as low as three degrees Celsius.
It was the latest in a series of mechanical failures to hit the troubled MTR Corporation-managed attraction in recent months.
The failure led to calls from the Australian company which originally ran the network for the government to stop blaming operators for the system's problems.
'By analysing everyday signals in routine checks, we could have noticed indications [pointing] to a problem,' said Frank Chan Fan (pictured), the government's director of electrical and mechanical services.
Chan said an investigation would examine whether mechanics could have spotted the faults earlier. He urged immediate action to avoid a repeat of the problem.
Ngong Ping 360 managing directors Wilson Shao Shing-ming admitted that deficiencies in the maintenance system would have to be rectified, but said checks were carried out before the busy Lunar New Year holiday period.
