SINGAPORE - The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) routinely carries out rescue drills on the Mount Faber Cable Car Line, but the drill on Thursday (Oct 6) was the first time the SCDF Marine Command took part in the exercise.

Beginning at 6am on Thursday, SCDF officers from the elite Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (Dart) conducted a half-day height rescue exercise which simulated the urgent retrieval of passengers from a stranded cable car.

Despite strong winds and chill after a morning downpour, SCDF officers scaled the 121m Selegu Tower, which is the highest point of the cable car line.

The dummies standing in for passengers were secured with safety harnesses and lowered to the base of the cable car station or the deck of a waiting SCDF marine fire vessel.

Singapore's worst cable car disaster was in 1983, when two Sentosa cable cars fell into the sea after the cable line was hit by the derrick of an oil drilling vessel. Seven people died in the accident.