A Brooklyn woman fell off a ski lift more than 20 feet in the air at Hunter Mountain Ski Resort and died over the weekend, the New York Times reported.
Olga Filkin, 44, was ascending the mountain alone on a lift chair made to carry three people on Sunday afternoon when she suddenly fell to the slope underneath her. The restraining bar used to hold passengers in was secured, according to a police statement.
It has not yet been determined what caused the woman to fall, but one of her skis may have gotten caught on a support pole holding the lift cable in place, leading to her being pulled from the chair. An autopsy showed her death was accidental, according to WNYT.
"This is a terrible tragedy. We can only imagine what the family is going through, and we stand ready to assist them in any way that we can," Russ Coloton, the president of the resort, which is in New York state, said in a statement.
Gerry Tschinkel, vice president for sales and marketing at Hunter Mountain Ski Resort, said Filkin was a regular. She was pronounced dead at a first aid room at the base of the mountain.
The triple-chair lift, was refurbished in 1981 after being installed in 1967. He said he was not aware of any problems with the lift or previous deaths from riding a lift anywhere in New York.
