Climbers on Aonach Mòr's eastern corries

The operators of the cable cars that hoist thousands of mountaineers up Scotland’s ninth-highest mountain were fined £2,000 after an accident which left five people injured.

Nevis Range Development Company, which runs the Aonach Mòr gondola, admitted breaking the Health and Safety at Work Act after two of the cars collided, causing one to fall off the cable and plunge 8m (25ft) to the mountainside below. One man was thrown from the gondola and suffered a punctured lung.

Kevin Byrne, the operator at the top station on the day of the incident, also admitted health and safety offences and was fined £1,000. Ironically, Mr Byrne was a member of the Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team.

Jelle Koen, of Totnes, Devon, suffered damaged vertebrae, seven broken ribs, a smashed shoulder blade and a head injury, as well as his punctured lung, when he was catapulted through the front of the gondola after it was hit by another car.

His 24-year-old son Daniel suffered back injuries when he leapt from the stricken gondola.

A family of three from Newry, County Down, were injured when their car was knocked off the cable and fell to the ground.

Fort William Sheriff Court heard that the incident happened on 13 July 2006, when Mr Byrne noticed a gondola swinging as it left the top station.

He stopped the system and should, according to company safety procedures, have reversed the car back into the station. A control panel indicated a fault with the mechanism which secures the car to the cable. The system should only be restarted if no faults are found.

Instead, he made a visual inspection, replaced a broken device and reset the system. This sent an indication to the bottom station controller that the fault had been fixed and he restarted the cable.

More than a hundred passengers on the system had to be rescued, many by helicopter.

The operating company issued a statement saying: “All of us at Nevis Range were shocked by the accident in 2006. Over the 17 years of operating we have taken the importance of safety in all aspects of operation very seriously, and until that point two years ago had operated without major incident.

“Following the accident, we have reviewed and amended our operating procedures.

“We have done everything possible to ensure we continually focus on safety to prevent an accident like this happening again.

“Our sympathy goes out to those injured during the accident and we continue to wish them well.”

Sheriff William Taylor imposed the limited fines – the company faced a penalty of up to £50,000 – because both Kevin Byrne and Nevis Range had made early admissions of guilt. Mr Byrne’s exemplary service in mountain rescue was also taken into account.

Although built to serve the ski runs on the northern slopes of 1,221m (4,005ft) Aonach Mòr, the gondola system is used in winter by many climbers and mountaineers heading for the summit plateau and the extensive climbing in the mountain’s eastern and western corries.