Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev and Blagoevgrad Mayor Kostadin Paskalev got stuck in the cabin lift of the new ski-resort “Kartala” due to a technical failure on Wednesday, Sept 17.  

The incident, which raised questions about the facility’s legal status, happened as Stanishev and Paskalev were on their way to the lift’s terminal station, where they were supposed to address the recent fire in Rila National Park. As the foremost cabin reached two-thirds of the distance to the top, the lift’s cabins suddenly halted. After hanging in the air for 20 minutes, they slowly began retreating. The prime minister returned to the starting station and left for a meeting in Sofia.  

Back on solid ground, Paskalev said that the lift had switched to an emergency generator because of a power cut. Bulgarian newspaper Standard later announced that a blown safety-fuse had in fact caused the incident.  

Mayor Paskalev said that the cabin lift had been used to survey the area of the Rila forest fire. Workers had also performed 72-hour tests of the facility. Paskalev rejected the accusations of ecologists that the operation of the cabin lift was illegal, calling them attempts to support “unfair competition.” Although the facility does not have exploitation permission, he said the resort has all other required documents, including an assessment of its impact on the environment.  

One day after the incident, in an interview for Darik Radio, the director of the State Agency for Technical Surveillance in Blagoevgrad stated that he had issued a ban on the exploitation of the facility.   Ski-resort “Kartala” is a major initiative for developing tourism in the region. The entire project will cost EUR 65 million and should be completed by 2011. Its 3 km ropeway, at an altitude of about 2200m, has a theoretical capacity of 1400 people/hour.  

Stanishev arrived in Blagoevgrad to open the new academic year at the South-West University and a 6 km rehabilitated track of the road Blagoevgrad-Bodrost, which leads to the ski-resort.