The director of the broken cable car in Nalchik was sentenced to three years probation.

The court in Kabardino-Balkaria sentenced the head of the passenger cable car "Excursion Complex 'Pearl'" in Nalchik to a suspended sentence due to a cable break in which 13 tourists were injured in the summer of 2025.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", in February 2026, it became known that the Nalchik City Court of Kabardino-Balkaria would consider a criminal case against the head of the cable car, due to a cable break in which 13 people were injured in the summer of 2025.

According to the court and investigation, on August 8, 2025, during the provision of excursion services to citizens on the chairlift, the drive shaft of the main mechanism broke, the press service of the Investigative Committee of Kabardino-Balkaria reported today on its Telegram channel.

The mechanism's break caused the people in the chairs to fall out. They sustained injuries of varying severity. In total, as a result of the incident, 13 people were injured, one of whom suffered serious harm to health.

"What happened was a consequence of the convicted person's improper performance of the duties imposed on him for organizing the operation, technical maintenance, and repair of the passenger cable car," the agency's message states.

According to the court, already in December 2023, during an inspection of the main mechanisms of the cable car, damage to the drive shaft was discovered. The convicted person, understanding that continuing to operate the cable car with a damaged shaft was impossible and that the mechanism needed to be replaced, independently repaired it and continued its operation.

The Nalchik City Court found him guilty of providing services that do not meet the safety requirements for the life or health of consumers 1 , and sentenced him to three years of imprisonment conditionally with a probation period of two years. He was also deprived of the right to engage in activities related to the operation of passenger cable cars for two years.

It should be noted that back in late 2024, specialists from Rostekhnadzor concluded that the operation of the chairlift violated safety requirements and created a threat to people's safety. On December 5 of the same year, a representative of LLC "EC 'Pearl'" in court acknowledged the claims of the lawsuit but explained that most of the violations had been eliminated.

At that time, the court imposed a fine of 100,000 rubles on the company, and considered the suspension of the cable car's operation as a last resort, since "there was no objective data indicating that the operation of the chairlift posed a real threat to the life and health of citizens, or the emergence of an emergency situation, presented to the court."

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that the parents of a person who died during the cable car break in Elbrus in 2025 would receive compensation of three million rubles. At that time, as a result of the cable car cable break on Mount Elbrus, three people died, and another 11 were injured.