Tourist documents ‘nightmare’ experience of being trapped in cable car for hours
Man jokes that ‘it’s a good way to go’ while thousands of metres above ground
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.A tourist has described experiencing his “worst nightmare” after being stranded thousands of metres in the air for more than three hours on one of the world’s longest cable cars.
Haris Minhaj was part of a group travelling on Fansipan mountain in northern Vietnam for what should have been a 15-minute journey before an abrupt stop among the clouds.
Mr Minhaj, whose TikTok bio notes that he’s from Perth, Australia, documented the unexpected high-altitude halt in a three-minute video uploaded to social media, which has now been viewed more than half a million times.
“We are stuck… 3,000 metres above sea level,” he says, before asking someone else if they’re panicking – to which they say yes.
He proceeds to crack jokes, including telling those around him that “it’s a good way to go”, with someone replying “no dark jokes, OK?”.
After being told that they will have to sit and wait, Mr Minhal suggests that they need a “survival plan”, which includes rationing out food.
At one point in the footage, the cable car begins moving again, but the movement is slow, with frequent stops.
Mr Minhaj provides regular updates, beginning after one hour of being trapped. At that stage, it was apparently “getting quite hot” and people were beginning to panic. Over the next 30 minutes, some progress was made to get down the mountain, with the Australian stating that “the mood has certainly lifted”.
After two and a half hours, the cable car finally emerged from the clouds, with the ground in sight in the video. Once safely back at the cable car station, Mr Minhaj said: “What an experience”.
People praised the TikTok user’s upbeat attitude during the ordeal, with someone commenting on the post: “People wouldn’t [have] had a chance to worry focusing on his antics. Annoying or not, he would [have] helped them all”.
Another wrote: “At least this guy is making it fun he probably calmed everyone down”.
One comment joked that those on board had “found the guy they never want to be stuck in a cable car with”.
Despite his bravado, Mr Minhaj told The Mirror that he did panic, but “I thought: ‘Am I going to die here? Let’s stay positive and cheer everyone up.’”.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments