The police in the Indonesian resort island of Bali are investigating how the cable of an elevator car snapped at a mountainside luxury resort, sending the car plunging into a ravine and ultimately killing all five workers inside.
The crash occurred last Friday at Ayuterra Resort in the Ubud area of Bali, an Indonesian island where tourism drives the economy and draws hospitality workers from local villages.
Two of the five members of the resort’s housekeeping staff who were inside the elevator car when the cable broke died at the site, the police told local news media outlets. The other three died in the hospital from their injuries.
The Ubud police chief, I Made Uder, told the local news media this week that the steel rope lifting the elevator was not strong enough, and that its safety brake did not work. But he added that police were still investigating the accident’s exact cause.
Jansen Avitus Panjaitan, a spokesman for the Bali police, declined to comment Thursday morning, saying that the investigation was still underway.
Representatives for Ayuterra Resort did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday. The resort’s website advertises what it calls a “back to nature” guest experience that includes glass-lined bedrooms and views of a forest, a mountain and a river.