Sugarloaf Ski Accident Investigation: Winds to Blame?

Dec. 29, 2010— -- Investigators will take a close look today at a Maine ski lift that broke Tuesday morning, sending five chairs of people plummeting more than 20 feet to the snow-packed ground below.

At least six people were injured when a line on the chairlift at the Sugarloaf ski area suddenly snapped. The resort said none of the injuries were life-threatening.

Longtime skier Rebecca London said everything seemed normal as she rode the chairlift until it stopped for a second time. Then, without warning, she suddenly realized she was falling.

"It [the lift] kind of jerked backwards and then all the sudden I could feel myself falling and see the chair in front of me falling as well," London, 20, told "Good Morning America" today. "It was happening so fast I really didn't have time. ... I didn't even realize what had happened until I was on the ground."

Investigators are reportedly looking at wind as a possible cause of the accident on the Spillway lift, given that there were 40-mph gusts at the time. The lift had been closed earlier in the day because of the high winds but reopened half an hour before the accident.

On its website, Sugarloaf, which is 120 miles north of Portland, said the Spillway lift "is ... vulnerable to wind holds," and that improvements are underway to improve the mechanism.

But London said the wind did not seem to be a problem at the time.

"Maybe it was a small factor but I don't think that it was a giant factor," she said. "I don't remember it being outrageously high winds yesterday. ... I also have been on that chairlift in higher winds."

Witnesses also said a worker appeared to be in the middle of repairing part of the lift tower at the time of the accident, which a spokesman for Sugarloaf could not confirm.